The Heart of Duty
by The Raconteur's Apprentice
Summary: In which Sakura fulfills the full potential of her intelligence and perfect chakra control. A story of honor, love, trust. A story of sacrifice. A story of growing up. Sakura-centric. Will loosely follow some canon timeline. A fair warning: a sizable portion of this will be dedicated to exploring the cool possibilities of chakra.
1. Chapter 1

A warm up. Action doesn't really start until Chapter 2.

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

"Tou-san?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you and kaa-san leaving now?"

"Yeah." A hair tousle. "Sorry, little blossom. Kaa-san's gone already, she sends you lots of love." He taps the girl on the nose.

She sneezes, then frowns. "When will you be back?"

A pause. "Next Friday."

"That's a long time. You're always gone on missions."

A hug. "Heyy, don't be sad, Sakura-chan! Kaa-san and I...we'll bring you a present, okay?"

"Okay." Her chin wobbles. "Be safe."

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan," Kizashi gives his daughter's hair another ruffle. "Lots of people are coming with us. Everything will be okay, promise." He extends a tan, curved pinky.

"Okay." She sticks out her own pinky, and entwines it with his, and they shake hands. "Take Momo with you." She hands him a stuffed rabbit, white but scruffy, ears slightly tattered, faded red ribbon around its neck. A small row of stitches trail down its abdomen, a remnant from the kunai that had once pierced it through Kizashi's waist pouch during a desert skirmish.

"One day." Sakura looks up, green eyes bright with inner fire. "I'll become a great shinobi like you. And I'll come with you and kaa-san on missions, and you won't need Momo at all, because I'll protect you!"

The man's blue eyes darken, glisten. "Okay Sakura-chan." The little girl is pulled into an all-enveloping hug. "Just promise me," a fierce whisper in her ear, " _be a great protector_."

She inhales the warm scent of cinnamon and safety. A coarse pink mustache tickles her forehead.

"I promise."

"I'm proud of you." He gives her shoulders one last squeeze. "Be a good girl, okay? Remember to set your alarm clock, and lock the door when you leave for class-don't skip!"

"I'll be good."

He presses a quick kiss to her forehead. "Good night, Sakura-chan." He turns off the light, stands up. In the dark, the water droplets on her bedspread are rendered invisible.

"'Bye, tou-san."

"I love you, Sakura-chan."

The door closes.

* * *

Umino Iruka is an average shinobi. He was just shy of twelve when he graduated the Academy, and sixteen when he made _chuunin_. He took the _chuunin_ exams three times, the _jounin_ ones twice. He retired from active missions after a his second visit to Death's front porch, from which he was sent away with a thump on the head and a searing kiss to the nose. There's a patch of skin at the back of his scalp that will forever remain bare now, carefully covered by the base of his spiky ponytail. The tender flesh stretching across his cheeks still burns sometimes, and remembers.

Like other Academy instructors, Iruka is respected by his students in the perfunctory way all adults are, and keeps order in the classroom through a genial mixture of benevolence and the occasional bout of exasperated austerity. He lets his class out promptly at two-thirty in the afternoon, then does paperwork until four-thirty before leaving.

Today is no different. At precisely four-thirty, Iruka gathers up a pile of graded tests and leaves the classroom with the papers cradled in his left elbow, sliding the door closed behind him. He checks the locks on the front doors-it's Friday-and leaves the building, turning left towards a park on his way to the grocers. It is normally a quiet walk.

So Iruka is surprised to see a small crowd of children gathered up ahead, around the sandbox of a small playground set along the path. He treads closer. He recognizes these children from the academy, and they recognize him too, and run away upon spotting him. "Later, Forehead!" a girl hollers as they disappear down the road. Iruka peers behind the sandbox. One child is still there, head bowed. It is a little girl in a red dress, scrapes on her knees and dirt on her palms, soft pink hair floating around her rounded face like a cloud of cotton candy. He knows this girl. She rarely speaks in class, and sits in the back row.

"Sakura?"

The girl peeks up at him through her bangs. "Iruka-sensei?"

He kneels. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Silence.

"Did you fall?"

Shake.

Iruka frowns. "It's getting pretty late. Where are your parents?"

Sakura eyes are suspiciously moist. "They're on a mission."

Oh. "Well, how about I walk you home then?"

A sniffle.

"Actually, nevermind. How about we get you cleaned up and have some dinner at the marketplace? My treat!" He gently rests a hand on her crown of soft pink locks. Groceries can wait.

"Can we have dango?"

A surprised huff of a laugh escapes Iruka. "How about ramen instead? We can get some dango for dessert, okay?" She responds with a shaky smile.

He takes her back to the academy, washes and disinfects her scrapes with a medical kit in the main office. There are small cuts on her palm as well, beneath the dirt. He puts a piece of gauze on each knee.

"You up for some dinner?"

"Yes, please."

"Let's go then!"

The Ichiraku ramen stand shines with a cheery glow that radiates out to the street from beneath the entrance flaps. A comfortable clatter of pots and pans emanates from behind the counter. Teuchi greets them with a grin as they each grab a stool.

"Hey, Iruka! Back again? And who's this little lady?"

"I'm Sakura." She waves.

"Well, hello! Call me Teuchi! What would you like today?"

"I've never had ramen before." A whisper.

"How about a miso then?" Iruka suggests, "I'll take a tonkatsu."

"Coming right up! On the house, since it's Sakura-chan's first time," Teuchi shoots them a wink over his shoulder.

"You come here often, sensei?"

"Aa, once a week, usually."

"Oh. I normally eat at home."

"Your mom's cooking must be delicious."

"I cook."

Iruka blinks. "Isn't that dangerous? You're seven."

"Eight now, sensei. I mostly make onigiri when I'm alone."

There is a loud rattle from the kitchen followed by the brief sound of rushing water hitting metal. Teuchi bustles out with two steaming bowls on a tray. "Here you are! Please enjoy!" Teuchi places a bowl in front of each of them, then takes the serving platter back into the kitchen.

"Itadakimasu," they chorus.

Sakura inhales. Thick steam curls against her face.

"Is it good?"

"Delicious."

They eat in companionable silence.

"So.." Iruka trails off, clears his throat. Stirs his broth a little-the noodles are gone. "Your friends call you 'Forehead'?"

He is mildly surprised at the lack of tears, but Sakura had always struck him as a reticent, precocious child. Her voice is shaky. "N-no. We're not friends."

He waits. "Were they bullying you then?" he asks gently. Reaching out a hand, he rests it lightly on her shoulder.

A small nod. Her hair trembles.

"Why?"

Her shoulders hunch. "Because I'm w-weird. And my forehead is huge." Her voice turns flat.

"No it's not! Your forehead seems fine to me, Sakura-chan." Gripping her shoulder, Iruka steers her off the stool, sparing a moment to feel grateful that she didn't eat ten bowls. He is going to have a word with those bullies.

Waving good-bye to Teuchi, he leads her across the street to a small teahouse. He orders a plate of mitarashi dango.

Sakura has been quiet. Head tilted down, Iruka can only see the tip of her nose twitching slightly beneath her long bangs, dusky in the lantern light. Iruka waits patiently until she looks up. Her eyebrows and furrowed, eyes emerald with fervor. She is almost glaring at him, and expression he has never seen on her face before. With the air of one who is about to expose a damning secret, she bursts out, "My forehead IS big, Iruka-sensei! Look at it!" she rakes her bangs back from her face in a spasm of movement, "It's _giant_!"

Iruka can't help but laugh. "It's not that big at all, Sakura chan," he waves his hands in an attempt at consolation at her half furious, half despondent face. "You'll grow into it in a few years. It's really rather cute!"

"Do you...really think so?"

"Aa. You definitely will. Don't listen to those bullies!" His voice is firm, "Did they cause those scrapes?"

"I...fell."

"..Aa."

"Thank you for helping me."

A waiter comes with a plate of dango and two cups of green tea. The tea is hot against Iruka's mouth, almost scalding, with a fresh, clean scent. It is good tea. The dango is chewy, syrupy, and still wonderfully warm from the grill. He grabs a second stick. Sakura swings her feet as she polishes off her first.

"Ne, Iruka-sensei?"

"Hm?" The girl seems slightly hesitant, but her shoulders have loosened. She chews on a dumpling slowly.

"Do you think I'll be a good shinobi someday?"

Iruka pauses. "Of course I do. What brought this on?"

Sakura is silent for a beat, then two.

"They said I'm too weak to be a ninja." She grips her skewer tightly. "Because my taijutsu is horrible, and I'm bad at kunai-throwing. And, I don't have any clan jutsu."

She bows her head. "But I made a promise recently." Quietly. "I said I'd be a great shinobi one day. And I intend to keep it."

"Sakura." Iruka's voice is firm. "Don't listen to those bullies. You are at the top of your class on exams and theory-in fact, you received full marks on the one I held today," he gestures to the pile of graded tests on the seat beside him, "and you're not just book-smart, either. You're technique is flawless during genjutsu sessions-the Academy teachers actually think you're a genjutsu type, which is rare, especially in Konoha." He wonders offhandedly if he isn't breaking an Academy rule of some sort by telling her all of this, and shrugs mentally.

Sakura's feeble protests have trailed off into silence, and she looks at him with a spark of hope in her eyes.

"It's true that your taijutsu and stamina needs some work, but those things can all be improved upon with practice." Iruka offers the girl a warm smile as he pays for the bill. "Believe in yourself, Sakura." Sliding the pile of tests into a flap inside his flak jacket, he offers grinning girl a hand up from the table. "Will you practice?"

" _Hai!_ "

"Alright," Iruka chuckles. The child is really quite adorable. He suddenly feels strangely benevolent. "Want to piggyback to your house?"

"Yes!"

"Tell me which way to turn," he instructs as he walks. Skinny legs wrap themselves snugly around his waist, small hands gripping his shoulders tightly.

A squeeze on his left shoulder. "Left." Another squeeze. "Left." A squeeze on his right.

Left squeeze.

Right squeeze.

"My house is the one with the red roof, by the lamppost."

"Aa." The street is silent save the soft shuffle of dark sandals against packed dirt. "You know, Sakura-chan, your chakra control is amazing." He readjusts his grip on her thigh. "I've never heard of anyone with perfect control before…" He sets her down gently. "That's kind of like a clan jutsu, ne? Maybe even better!" He smiles at her look of wonder.

"Thanks, Iruka-sensei." She grips the hem of her dress. "For dinner, too, and cleaning my cuts."

Her hair dances in the breeze. He gives it a quick ruffle. "No problem, Sakura-chan." He turns toward the direction of his own apartment. "See you on Monday! Talk more in class, okay? I know you know the answers!"

Sakura grins radiantly at his retreating back. "Hai, sensei!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Dawn caresses the petal locks of a small girl standing on the stone steps before the village library. It is Saturday, and the street is still quiet. The shops are still shuttered, and a lone pigeon pecks its way through the cracked remnants of a half-crushed senbei.

A sign is posted before the entrance: the library is closed today. But shinobi are allowed access at all hours, at least theoretically. Sakura squares her shoulders. She has a promise to keep, which means training to get to and theory to read up on. She pushes through the big double doors. She _will_ get in.

A second set of doors greets her behind the ones she just passed through. They are sliding doors, and are usually kept open during official library hours. A stylized leaf is inscribed where the two doors meet at the center, with each side bearing half the seal. Sakura has seen them once before. She had been with her mom, and remembers with vivid clarity the bright glow of her mother's hand, the answering shine of the seal as it flashed a blinding blue, an overbright glare. She remembers her mother explaining how releasing chakra into the seal unlocks the doors, and allows the librarians to keep track of who has entered the building in case anything goes missing.

The mechanics are simple, but the trick is releasing chakra into the seal. Sakura furrows her brows. The Academy has yet to teach students how to release chakra; she has only emitted chakra through simple jutsus like _henge_ , which are simpler in a way because the hand seals involved act as a conduit for her chakra, guiding it out from her body and changing it into a different form. To discharge a stream of pure chakra…

Closing her eyes in concentration, she gently rests a hand on the leaf engraving and carefully feels for the space near her abdomen where physical and spiritual energy meet and mix, spinning and twisting together into a swirling mass of chakra. With a quick, mental tug, she pulls a tendril of energy towards her fingers, inhaling deeply at the feeling of it stretching from her center up her torso, through her shoulder, down her arm, until it reaches her fingers. The she pushes. There is a weak fizzle, and a tingle at the tips of her digits. Sakura opens her eyes, ceasing the flow and feeling the rest her chakra receding back to her abdomen.

Nothing happens. The seal remains cold and colorless, the cleanly-etched design staring back at her impassively. ' _Not enough chakra...',_ something in the back of her mind whispers.

Biting her lip, Sakura tries again. Slowly draws out a strand of chakra, guides it steadily towards her hand, and pushes it out through her fingers. ' _Sustain it!_ ' Pressing harder against the door, she continues to draw chakra slowly, evenly to her fingers, releasing it into the seal bit-by-bit. Her hand doesn't glow, and the seal doesn't flash incandescently the way it did when her mother did it. In fact, nothing happens.

Sakura frowns, then gasps, because the part of the seal below her fingers _is_ bleeding to blue. Slowly, color is pooling into the insignia and flowing towards the the outer edges of the seal. Sakura channels more chakra, watching as the rest of the design floods with color. There is a soft _click_ , and the doors slide open.

With a wide grin, Sakura walks into the library.

Diving straight into the section on chakra manipulation, she peruses the shelves for a book on the basics of chakra control. Iruka-sensei told her she had potential the night before, and Sakura is determined to start improving immediately. Pulling out a scroll titled _The Fundamentals of Chakra: Control and Theory_ , she makes her way over to a table and begins to read.

By late afternoon, her head is swimming with information. The first scroll she picked turns out to be of little use, since it mostly covers ideas she had already learned through Academy texts. She does learn some interesting facts, though. Apparently genjutsu requires very fine chakra control, which may explain her aptitude for the subject. Iron control also allows for the practice of medical jutsu, which relatively few people can perform. According to the text, the shinobi currently considered to have the best chakra control in the Five Nations is a medical ninja known as Tsunade-hime, who actually hails from Konoha. Beyond facts like these, though, _The Fundamentals of Chakra: Control and Theory_ teaches her little she doesn't already know.

A second scroll turns out much better. _Basic Exercises on Chakra Control and Expansion_ expounded on several methods to practice chakra control, such as an activity called 'leaf-concentration', along with more advanced ones like 'tree-running' and 'water-walking'. It even provides an accompanying illustration of a man walking sideways up a tree, which Sakura stares at in wonder. There is just something so extremely _cool_ about the abilities shinobi possess-definitely something she wants to try! The bottom of the scroll also details ways to expand on existing chakra reserves. Sakura reads that section eagerly, recalling that her own reserves are currently below average in class. Perhaps unsurprisingly, physical energy can be expanded through rigorous physical exercise unaided by chakra, while spiritual energy is best developed through meditation.

Studiously jotting all of the new information down on a blank parchment, Sakura returns the two scrolls to their respective bookshelves, mentally sketching out a training regimen as she does so. She decides on half an hour of meditation, followed by a jog around as much of the village as she can manage. Chakra control exercises can follow after.

She has just returned to her table when the sound of sliding doors shakes her from her thoughts. No one else had entered building all day. The new visitor looks just as surprised as she feels.

"Wait, kid, what are you doing here? The library isn't open to the public today!" It's a lanky teen with dark hair standing straight up in a haphazard tuft, forehead protector wrapped crookedly at his hairline. Thin eyebrows furrow at her over brown-rimmed sunglasses.

"Uh," Sakura manages. "I was just, studying?"

An eyebrow shoots up. "So you're in the Academy, right? Who let you in off-hours?"

Sakura blinks. "No one. I came here myself."

The man gives her a look that can only properly be described as 'flummoxed'. Then he chuckles. "Alright, alright. I won't question you. But just a heads-up for next time: take a table near the back, 'kay? Academy students aren't supposed to be here during off-hours, and the next person you meet might be more insistent about who your mysterious benefactor is." He flashes her a teasing grin.

"Wait, but I don't have a 'mysterious benefactor'," Sakura tilts her head. "And kaa-san told me anyone can come in as long as you release chakra into the seal for the library's records."

"Right, but _you_ didn't unlock the seal. You are an Academy student, right?"

"Yeah, but I _did_ unlock the seal!" Cheeks puffing out involuntarily, Sakura somehow manages to simultaneously pout and glare at the bewildering stranger.

Oddly enough, the man is pouting right back. "And how did you do that?"

"By releasing chakra into it," Sakura responds dryly, finding it hard to be nervous around this skinny teen with the ridiculous hair.

A second later, she finds herself dragged out the entrance.

"Show me," the teen demands, turning her towards the once-again locked doors. With a huff, Sakura carefully channels chakra through her fingers and relights the stylized leaf symbol, and the doors swiftly slide open like before. The teen is gaping at her in a rather undignified manner.

"Since when did Academy kids start being able to do that!?"

Not knowing how exactly to respond, Sakura quietly shuffles back to her table to pack up her notes.

A shadow falls over her. "'Leaf-concentration' exercise?" The guy leans over her shoulder, "You could probably skip that. It's gonna be a waste of time for you. Possibly the tree-running one, too." He mumbles something about crazy kids under his breath.

Sakura blinks. "Who are you, anyway?"

He starts. "Oh yeah, I forgot that I didn't wear my vest today! Name's Aoba, _jounin_." He sticks out a hand. "I'm having a forced day off right now, since I just got discharged from the hospital." He rakes his other hand through his hair, making it even messier.

"Aa." Sakura shyly grasps his proffered palm for a handshake. "I'm Sakura." She smiles softly. "Why were you in the hospital?"

"Aah, well," a sheepish grin crosses his features, "I accidentally got myself gutted with a kunai on a mission."

Sakura stifles a gasp. "And you're okay?!"

"Better than ever! It was my fault, anyway. All it all it was a pretty lame affair," he laughs.

"Well I'm glad you're better now. It was nice to meet you, Aoba-san."

"Same here! Sorry for bothering you Sakura-chan-although, I still stand by my earlier advice of sticking to the back tables!" He slaps her back good-naturedly.

"Okay. I will remember your advice next time!" Sakura blushes.

He waves as he heads deeper into the rows of shelves, "See ya around, kid!"

With a deep bow, Sakura gathers up her papers and slips out the exit.

It is early evening by the time she arrives home, and the house is silent. Throwing together a quick meal of umeboshi onigiri, Sakura shoves an extra rice ball into the fridge for lunch the next day. She studies her notes as she scarfs down her dinner. The empty house is a bit unnerving at night, still and hollow, so she showers early and crawls into bed.

* * *

It's still early when she wakes up the next day. The slumbering shops are just starting to stir outside, and a group of grocers are setting up stands of fruit and cabbages at the square two blocks away. Sakura can just spy the tops of their carts through her window. A middle-aged man at a tamagoyaki street-stall begins pouring out his first batch of omelettes for the day ahead.

She had meant to wake up at dawn. Slightly behind schedule, Sakura throws on a dark blue kimono-shirt and black shorts before running into the bathroom to brush her teeth. Grabbing the onigiri left in the fridge the night before and a bottle of water, Sakura toes on her sandals and sets off for the training grounds.

Training ground six is a wide glade easily the size of three other training grounds put together, surrounded on three sides by an oxbow lake. A dense foliage borders the water, leaving the grassy center bare. In the middle of the field stands a group of training posts and dummies, a few pinned with targets for kunai and shuriken practice. It is the first unoccupied training field Sakura happens upon, and she readily makes her way to the base of a large oak to deposit her water and lunch in the shade before beginning her stretches.

Savoring the welcome burn in her muscles, Sakura makes sure to thoroughly loosen every knot, every crick before starting her slow jog around the village. It wouldn't do to sprain an ankle halfway up the Hokage Mountain.

She needn't have worried. Barely did she pass the one-fifth mark around Konoha before her she begins to run out of breath, and fifteen minutes later her legs are cramping terribly. A mixture of irritation and disappointment in herself spurs her to push her body harder, resolving to make it back to training ground six before collapsing. 'One more step,' she thinks, 'one more step.'

It is a mistake. Hardly five minutes later, her lungs are burning, her vision swimming. Sweat pours in rivulets down her face, her steps falter, and inevitably, she falls prey to a stray pebble. With a loud gasp, Sakura trips and stumbles, and would have gone sprawling in the dirt, except she doesn't.

"Are you alright?" It is a quiet voice, and Sakura subconsciously relaxes against the firm grip on her shoulder.

"Yes. Thank you for that." The hand loosens. It is a boy, probably no more than five or six years older than her, dark hair framing his face, a bag of vegetables in one hand.

"It is no problem."

"I would have been eating dirt if it wasn't for you, so really, thank you."

"Aa." The boy inclines his head slightly. A small smile brightens his features considerably, and lightens the deep stress lines on his face.

"Are you okay?" It slips out unbidden from her lips, and Sakura blushes furiously. "I-I mean, you just look tired, is all."

The boy considers her for a moment, then gives a graceful shrug. "I am fine, just a little stressed from family duties."

"O-oh," Sakura stutters. "W-well, I hope things get better soon. I'm sure everything will be fine!" She stares at her feet. Next to his unflappable elegance, she can't help feeling horribly gawky in comparison, chest still heaving from her run.

He is silent for a moment. By the time she looks back up at him, the boy is giving her a small nod. "Aa." He sweeps his ponytail over his shoulder. "Thank you." Not knowing what to say, Sakura nervously fiddles with her shirt sleeve. The boy's charcoal eyes skim over her sweaty form. "Why were you running?"

"Oh," Sakura repeats. "I was just training." She smiles at the word. It curls warmly around her mouth, like an achievement. "Oh!" Her eyes widen. "Speaking of training, I should get back to it!"

Sakura gives the boy a hasty bow. "Thank you again! My name is Haruno Sakura, hopefully we can meet again soon!" With another nod and smile, she hurries off as fast as her tired legs can manage, forgetting to ask the stranger for his name.

"Aa. Good luck, Sakura-san." Warm sable eyes follow her down the road.

* * *

Sakura is starving by the time she returns to training ground six, and wastes no time in scarfing down her onigiri and water, wistfully wishing she had brought more. The early afternoon breeze calmly ruffles her hair and clothing, drying off the trails of sweat running down her chest and back. With a slow inhale and exhale, Sakura settles herself against the thick oak trunk and tries to meditate.

Unfortunately, Sakura doesn't really know how to meditate, and ends up just sitting for a while in the shade blankly. She tries to clear her mind and calm her breathing, but stray thoughts keep meandering through her brain, and focusing on nothing turns out to be much more complicated than it seems.

Gradually, though, Sakura starts to become aware of a slight thrumming within her, a constant hum of unrest in an otherwise sea of forced calm. It is her chakra, ceaselessly swirling, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, in an erratic symphony of beat. Upon closer investigation, Sakura discovers pathways flooded with chakra throughout her limbs, contrary to her preconception that all of her chakra was concentrated at her center. Subconsciously furrowing her brows, she also notes that the chakra in her pathways is stagnant and still, and in some areas no more than a thin coating, like a layer of varnish, around her chakra channels.

Mentally returning to the swirling mass of chakra at her center, Sakura begins to meticulously draw out tendrils of chakra, guiding it through her chakra pathways much like she did the day before to unlock the leaf seal at the library. It takes the better part of an hour, but eventually Sakura is able to guide her chakra into cycling smoothly throughout her body in an endless stream flooding through her body in one long current of energy. Surprisingly, she finds that maintaining a sedate flow takes minimal concentration once started, and also leaves her limbs feeling stronger and lighter. It is a good feeling.

The flowing chakra also seems to sweep away the aches in her muscles, easing any cramps and soreness still lingering after her run. Sakura unfolds her legs and stretches, refreshed, reveling in the feeling of energy that courses through her arms and legs with her still-circling chakra. Plucking a small elm leaf from a low-lying branch of a neighboring tree, she places it on her forehead. According to her notes, the 'leaf-concentration' exercise requires the user to channel chakra to the area where the leaf touches skin, making it stick to the forehead.

It is absurdly easy. So much so that Sakura spends a few minutes spinning around to make sure it's not a fluke, even going so far as to pull at the leaf to test the strength of the connection. The end of the leaf rips off, leaving her with half a leaf stuck to her forehead. Sakura severs the connection.

Something like giddiness bubbles up her chest and she laughs, bright and gleeful. 'Aoba-san was right,' she remembers. And, 'tou-san will be proud.' Iruka-sensei would be proud, too.

'Tree-running', however, would probably be harder. Not one to be reckless, Sakura wanders through the copse of thick trunks until she reaches the lake. A huge beech tree leans over the still water, heavy branches stretching their delicate fingers towards their reflections below. 'That one,' Sakura thinks, and makes her way to its base.

Focusing chakra into her feet, Sakura places her right foot onto the trunk. The scroll had stated that the concept of tree-walking is very similar to that of the 'leaf-concentration' exercise: channel enough chakra to stick to the trunk, then run-or walk, which is apparently much harder-up normally. Too much chakra, and the bark will crack and repel her into the water. Too little will 'unstick' her from the trunk, also sending her into the water. With a quick turn of the head, Sakura checks to make sure that no stones are waiting beneath the clear surface of the lake, just smooth sand and leaves.

Satisfied, she tries to place her other foot on the trunk. Her first foot slips immediately. ' _Not enough chakra._ ' A whisper.

Left foot on the ground again, Sakura channels chakra beneath her other foot until it sticks to the tree no matter how hard she tugs her leg back. A soft, dim glow surrounds her foot. Then, she channels chakra into the other leg and places it on the trunk. It works.

Problem is, now she is stuck. She can only walk higher up the tree if she releases the chakra in her right foot, but that would leave her with only have one limb attached to the trunk. If she cannot channel chakra to her foot again fast enough, she would end up toppling into the water. With a grimace, Sakura steps back down.

'Okay, let's try running first.' She guides chakra through her legs again. 'All or nothing.' She gauges the distance up. 'Let's go!' With a soft cry, Sakura rushes up. Her excitement and apprehension blurs the bark beneath her feet, wind whistling in her ears as she _runs_.

"Woohoo!" She shouts into the evening air, alighting on a branch. A breeze caresses her face as she laughs. "I did it!"

'Is this what it feels like to be a ninja?'

Now Sakura knows why running is so much easier than walking up a tree. Whilst walking requires an incredibly precise timing of the channeling and release of chakra in very exact amounts, like the switching of a circuit, running only requires her to channel _some_ chakra in a steady stream. She only needs to channel enough chakra for her to be able to stick to the trunk for a brief moment, leaving the connection loose enough that she can pull her feet off the bark without severing her chakra flow. In that way, she can propel herself up the tree without stopping until she reaches a good resting place, like a branch, or decides to stick herself firmly to one spot on the trunk. 'I can't believe I never realized how amazing chakra is before!'

Getting down proves to be much messier. With a deep breath, Sakura charges down the trunk, eyes screwed shut at the steep slope directly below her, and barrels straight into the lake. The water is cold and deep. Gasping and sputtering, she paddles back to shore, clothes sopping. An eyebrow ticks in ire. "Of course I would barge straight into water going _down_ the trunk."

At least now she is inured to the chill of the lake, because Sakura ends up taking many more dips that afternoon. It takes five before she gets comfortable enough with timing her chakra output to walk up to her previous branch, taking multiple breaks as she climbs-standing parallel to the ground is giving her abs a torturous workout. By then, the sun is almost about to kiss the distant mountains, and her chakra levels are getting low. Sakura breathes in deeply. She can't help feeling that she is wasting a lot of chakra she needn't be on this tree-walking exercise. She walks up the tree again.

'For some reason, I am positive that I'm not using too much chakra to stick to the branch.' She frowns deeply, and thinks.

'Maybe, it's the way I'm doing it _._ '

An idea forms. She remembers the spiked shoes at hardware store windows, the men who buy them before vacations up north, to go ice climbing. 'Maybe something like that...'

Concentrating, Sakura urges her chakra to form sharp spikes, face screwed up with the effort. This time, her foot doesn't glow, but still attaches firmly to the trunk. Taking that as a good sign of chakra conservation, Sakura arduously plods up to her branch. She feels drained by the time she reaches the top. It _does_ save a lot of chakra, she realizes, but not as much as she expected. It is also much more mentally exhausting than the sticking method. Keeping her chakra sharpened into spikes requires constant control, and Sakura is surprised that her chakra is still cooperating with her after her blatant overuse of it. If her chakra had been like a muscle, Sakura knows it would have long seized up by now from overextension, especially since it has never been conditioned so vigorously before. She hopes it will work with her for a little while longer.

She has another idea to try.

Thinner spikes are even harder to create, but they save her even more chakra than her previous attempt. Unfortunately, they are not strong enough to support her full weight on one foot. At least, not yet. With bated breath and a silent prayer, Sakura puts her right foot on the trunk and creates the spikes again, but this time at a downward angle. Wiggling her leg, she checks that they hold, the new angle giving her more leverage even with the thinner spikes. With a cry of exhilaration, she climbs up.

Collapsing on top of her branch, Sakura gulps in air greedily, sweating from the concentration it took to get there. The setting sun lights the leaves around her into little windows of gold. Below her, the lake is painted in rosé watercolor. She must leave soon, as she is not so intrepid as to tree-walk in the dark. 'But first…' Sakura checks her chakra reserves. She is low, but her most recent trek up the tree had used very little chakra. Rolling onto her stomach, she considers the branch beneath her palms. One last experiment can't hurt.

Gripping the branch tightly with both hands, she carefully shifts off the branch until she is hanging vertically over the water. If she wasn't concentrating so hard, she would have laughed; she knows she must look a sight bobbing over the lake like a giant, overgrown melon. Spreading her palms apart, she swings her feet up until they are braced against the bottom of the branch between her palms. Then she channels chakra into her legs, forming them into straight spikes. But she doesn't let go of the branch with her palms. She is not confident the spikes alone will keep her attached to the branch, and a quick glance down at the chilly water below strengthens her resolve _not_ to test her weight as is. Closing her eyes, she zeroes in on the spikes at her feet, buried into the branch, and wills them to _split_ , like the metal clasps on manila envelopes. She counts backwards from three, and releases her hands.

Sakura shrieks as she falls. Except a second later, she is no longer falling, but _swinging_ , feet attached to the branch as if nailed there. The branch sways wildly as her laughter echoes through the trees. "Kami-sama!" she whoops. "This is unbelievable! This is crazy!" The feeling of the wind, of doing something that should be impossible...it is _thrilling_.Her reflection laughs back at her.

And then the blood rushes to her head. "Crap," Sakura gasps, and tries to swing back onto the branch. Instead she wobbles, body too tired to obey her mind's demands. "Wait-" a wave of vertigo sweeps through her, and her focus lapses, just for a second. She falls.

Her scream is swallowed by the freezing water as it rolls smoothly over her head. By the time she resurfaces, her previously semi-dry clothes are once again leaden with water, and shivers rack her small frame.

Dusk falls over her glaring visage, eyes trained on the still-swaying branch.

"I deserve some dango."

* * *

The next week passes by uneventfully. On Monday, she walks into class with her head held high, pastel hair tied back with a dark blue ribbon she found in her closet. She sits by the window of the second-to-last row of desks, and answers exactly one question. She flashes Iruka-sensei her brightest smile when she gets her test back, and runs to the library as soon as school ends. Her bullies are nowhere to be seen; Sakura has a suspicion that they are sitting through a very long lecture. She spends the afternoon reading about chakra meditation exercises.

On Tuesday, Sakura answers _two_ questions in class, and manages to run one quarter of the way around Konoha before collapsing. She counts that as a win. She also rekindles her relationship with her best friend the Beech Tree, and her other friend the Lake. By Wednesday, she is able to stand upside-down on her branch without breaking a sweat. A bit of experimentation leads her to discover that cycling her chakra in a certain way can coax her blood into circling in a similar pattern, preventing it from coalescing at her head, and the trick of splitting her spikes and angling them become second nature with a bit of practice. It is odd, but manipulating her chakra is like stretching a muscle she had never used before, but has always known how to operate.

On Thursday, Sakura confidently exits the Academy after class and strolls out the front gate.

"Oi, Forehead!" She turns. It is a purple-haired girl in a striped blouse, followed by a smaller girl with spiky maroon hair.

"Ami."

"Ami?! It's Ami-sama to you, Billboard-Brow! And what's with the ribbon? Your forehead's shining like a beacon, Fuki could see it from across the school!"

She wants to run, but musters up her courage. "What I do with my hair is none of your business."

"Oh yeah?" The girls step closer, "Well your forehead is a public disturbance! Honestly, it should be banned. I'm getting chills just looking at it!" Ami sneers. "Want me to wrap it for you?"

Sakura balls her fists half in fear, half in anger. "Leave me alone. My forehead is fine."

" _Fine?_ It's disgusting!" Ami pauses briefly to smile. 'Disgusting' is a new word she learned, and she rather likes the sound of it when used against the pink-haired freak. "And what do you think you're pulling with Iruka-sensei, huh?" Behind Ami, Fuki glares and punches her left fist with her right.

"But I should have known," Ami continues her monologue after a high, shrill laugh. "You're way too _weak_ to pull your own any sort of fight. Of course you would have to go crying to a teacher." She nods at Fuki, and they both begin to advance towards her. "It's too bad, there's no Iruka-sensei to save you now," she leers, "and I should probably let you know that it'll be useless to try and report us. Fuki and I," she slings an arm around the other girl's shoulder, "will be backed up by our _clans_ if anything happens." They both laugh. "You should have thought about that _before_ you tried to make trouble with a _real_ shinobi, you _weakling_."

But Sakura has had enough. Drawing herself up to her full height, she glares back at the two taller girls, ignoring the subtle shaking in her knees. "I don't need a clan to win against jerks like you!" which, for an eight-year-old, is really about as intense as insults go. The two bullies halt their approach temporarily at the unexpected reaction.

Sakura takes a deep breath. " And I am more of a shinobi than you will ever be." Subconsciously channeling chakra to her legs in her anxiety to escape, she steps forward and gives Ami a hard _shove_. And then she runs.

She doesn't stop to see how close behind her the girls are, or think about where she is going. She hears the distant echo of screaming and scrambling feet, and she just _runs_ , until the buildings are blurring and her eyes are tearing and all she can hear is the _thump thump_ of her heart in her ears. It occurs to Sakura that she is running a lot faster than normal. A lot faster than she should be able to. In fact, she isn't so much running as _rocketing_ down the path, raising a trail of dust behind her. She stumbles to a stop.

Before her stretch the scattered line of trees marking the beginning of the training grounds. Sakura isn't even out of breath. Blinking and checking her body in confusion, she pats her way down to her calves, surprised that the muscles are not the slightest bit sore. It isn't until she finds chakra pumping through her legs in swift, edgy currents that she finally understands.

The next hour is spent running around training ground six on chakra enhanced feet until she nearly crashes into a tree. At some point, Sakura discovers that releasing pulses of chakra from the heel of each foot during takeoff propels her forward just as effectively as continuous emission, and uses a lot less chakra. Sometime after that, she discovers that it's quite hard to change direction in mid-air, especially when objects are approaching ten times faster than normal. Hence, her near miss with the tree.

Folding her legs together, Sakura then spends an hour practicing meditation exercises detailed in the book she read on Monday. She guides chakra through her limbs at varying speeds, and spins the unruly mass of chakra at her center until it revolves in a homogenous sphere of mixing energies. She also finds tiny chakra vessels leading from her main chakra pathways up to the surface of her skin in numerous spots along her body. In some areas, such as her hands and feet, a bit of focus allows the chakra to leak out onto the surface of her skin, forming a soft glow. In most places, though, trying to drive her chakra through the miniscule vessels is like trying to force her way through a bolted iron door with her bare shoulders. She gives up eventually, when the last rays of sun have long been swallowed by the restless trees. All in all, it is a good day.

On Friday, Sakura confidently exits the Academy after class and strolls out the front gate. Nobody bothers her. Grinning, she heads to the library. Her parents are returning today, and she has less time than usual to train. Plucking a few scrolls off the shelves, she spends an hour studying several basic taijutsu _katas_ , and another reading a manuscript titled _Creating the Seal_. The writing is faded, and the scroll unsigned. On the flap is inked a stylized leaf, similar to the one engraved on the library doors, which is what originally compels Sakura to pick it up. Unable to make much sense of the dense scribbles and complex symbols, she eventually checks it out of the library, deciding to try deciphering the mysterious text later. Hurrying to the market, she purchases fresh vegetables and fish and potatoes for curry, as well as a box of fresh mochi from a nearby teahouse. Groceries under one arm and scroll in the other, she makes her way back home.

For the first time since her parents left, she turns on all the lights and pulls up the kitchen windows, allowing the evening breeze to waft into the house and blow away a week's worth of stale dust and air. Jumping onto a stool, she cooks up some rice and scales the fish and gets started on the vegetables, peeling and slicing the potatoes. Dusk has fallen by the time she is finished with the curry, and the house is a castle of fire spilling light through gauzy curtains into the darkness. Sakura is stirring a small pot of miso soup when a leaden fist knocks on the door.

Jumping off her stool in excitement, she runs to the door before stopping with a frown. Her parents don't knock.

The door opens to a dark-clothed statue. Light from the kitchen reflects off a smooth white mask with rounded ears, empty eye-holes circled in red. Child and visitor regard each other in silence.

"Your parents are dead."

There is no inflection in the words, and the monster's painted mouth peers down impassively, motionless.

"Their bodies will be buried tomorrow."

Sakura just stares.

The mask lifts toward the sky.

"Your mother's name will be added to the Memorial Stone."

"And," Sakura wets her lips. Her mouth is filled with cement. "Tou-san..." A whisper.

For the first time, the weight of the stranger's heavy gaze burns through her.

"Your father was captured and interrogated."

A cutting pause.

"Eight shinobi died today." A cold wind whistles down the street. "Because of stolen intel."

The stranger's cloak snaps in the gale,

"Your father died,"

Stirring up dust in her eyes,

"A traitor."

Dust in her throat.

And then the stranger vanishes, and Sakura is left standing on the doorstep, staring into the dark, a stuffed rabbit clutched to her chest.


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry for the late update! I've been...suffering writer's block (slacking). I made some minor edits to Chapters 1 and 2, and will update with Chapter 4 in a couple of days.

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed/favorited/followed! You've all made me very happy :)

Also thank you to everyone for reading this story!

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

The sun is a vindictive ball of heat and careless humor. Sadistic rays beat down upon clay shingles, dusty paths, stiff robes. One beam lightly caresses the faces of a line of caskets as they are laid down one after another on soft grass, lowered into the earth, buried. A heavy golden blanket slowly burns into the backs of mourners, a mass of black against the green, delighting in the salty trails of sweat and tears. One young tendril of light cruelly shines into the Hokage's eyes like an act of subversion, laughs as he closes his eyes and puffs into his pipe.

The rest of the city is quiet. Many doors are closed, window shades drawn. The market air is tense and withdrawn, and the usual flood of leaping shadows amongst the rooftops has thinned into a trickle, an occasional flicker.

A house stands silent in the stillness. Heat and sun fail to penetrate its brittle walls, its empty rooms. She sits motionless on her bed, blankets piled around her, puffy eyes dry with the withered stains of crusted salt.

Sometime in the past forty-eight hours her tears have slowed and thickened, leaving her face sticky and body dehydrated. The locked box below her bed burns her through the mattress and she is glad, because every other part of her is freezing.

A note lies unfolded on the dusty floor, announcing a funeral. Sakura lies back on her pillows, closes her eyes. Waiting. Not for a vision of her parents to burst through the door, or a messenger to announce that it was all a mistake-she's not stupid, or delusional. In fact, Sakura almost prefers believing her parents dead now than to harbor a futile hope to be later squashed even more harshly. No, she is just waiting. For something to happen, for something to pull her out of this room that holds little more than a numb timelessness to her now. This emptiness. This darkness. Traitor. I love you.

Kaa-san.

Tou-san.

She hasn't been to the Academy for a week. An echo of a command floats through her mind in a listless breeze, _don't skip_ , but she isn't even sure if she cares. What is a broken promise to a broken man? Traitor. _Sakura-chan_.

A knock on the front door. Firm.

Steady.

Terse.

Sakura slips out of the covers, tugs at a few wrinkles on her white nightshirt and steps over the funeral notice, out the bedroom.

A cat mask, a messenger. "Hokage-sama would like to speak with you." A pause. "Now, if you are available." The woman crouches down. "Would you like to change first, Sakura-chan?"

 _Sakura-chan?_

"No." Her voice is cracked from disuse. Sakura coughs, reconsiders.

"One moment please, shinobi-san." Retreating back into the cool darkness of the house, she washes the tear stains from her face and dons a simple black shirt and matching short. She ties back her bangs, and stares into the mirror until the last bits of emotion drain from her face. She isn't yet sure how she should face the situation yet, and until she figures it out the best thing to do will be to wear a mask. She doesn't want anyone's pity. Closing her eyes, she turns away from the mirror.

The woman is leaning against the porch railing.

"I am sorry for keeping you waiting, I should have invited you inside." The woman seems a bit taken aback at her appearance, and faces her silently for a moment before shrugging. "It was no problem at all. Ready?"

"Let's go."

She needs some answers.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen is not having a good week. First he gets news of two failed missions and the loss of a good spy, and now he has seven dead Uchihas and a traitor's orphan on his hands. And if that isn't enough, the political situation with the Uchihas is looking no better than before-in fact, the whole fiasco is looking worse than ever for obvious reasons. With a deep sigh, he looks away from the window and reclaims his seat at the desk.

There is a knock on the door. "The girl is here."

"Let her in."

The pink-haired child is not what Hiruzen is expecting. There are no waterworks or angry screaming. The girl slips inside quietly, dressed impeccably. Aside from the chillingly somber aura and the empty green eyes, the girl is hiding her emotions exceedingly well.

"It is an honor to meet you, Hokage-sama." The child dips into a polite bow.

"Oh no need for formalities, child. Please, sit down." He gestures to the single chair he'd had the front desk bring in earlier expressly for this purpose.

As the girl calmly takes the seat, Hiruzen examines her beneath the wide brim of his hat and worries, just a little. It is not the child's fault that everything had turned out the way it did. But he was also uncertain as to how to broach the subject with her. Haruno Sakura's file had detailed a quiet, shy but good-natured girl, slightly below average in terms of physical abilities and top of the class in theory, but otherwise quite unextraordinary. The file did not mention anything along the lines of stoic apathy and an unnervingly precocious gaze.

"How have you been doing Sakura-chan?" _Sakura-chan_.

"Well."

Hiruzen watches the girl's stare grow colder, although it does not seem to be a deliberate change. He clears his throat.

"I just wanted to meet with you to talk about living arrangements." The girl's focus immediately zeroes on him with disturbing intensity. "I've look through your family records, and it seems that you have no relatives in the city able to take you in."

The girl nods as if she already knew. "Because of your situation, we can either send you to live with your closest relatives-"

"I am not leaving Konoha." Green eyes are flashing. Hiruzen blinks.

"Alright, then how about moving in to one of the empty apartments near the Hokage Tower?" _For orphans. Where we can take care of you._

"No." The girl is so very calm, and icy. Very icy. "I will be staying in the house my parents owned and paid for every square inch of, which is now _my_ house." She folds her hands demurely in her lap, fingers trembling. "And I do not know what you mean by 'my situation'. How is my situation anything special? Is it because my father is a 'traitor'?" The word tumbles awkwardly from her lips, unfamiliar, wrong. She presses her lips together.

Oh. "No of course not Sakura-ch...Sakura. I merely meant the lack of possible guardians for you here." He wonders who told her about her father's...status already, and frowns. _To burden the shoulders of one so young…_

He sighs. "It may be dangerous living by yourself in the village. I just want to make sure you are always safe, Sakura."

The girl relaxes, somewhat. "I know how to take care of myself, Hokage-sama. My parents went on missions often….I can cook and clean and do most household tasks."

Hiruzen considers her for a bit, and steeples his fingers. "Fine. But I would like you to check in with one of the shinobi here at least once every other day, deal?"

The offer finally seems to soften the child a bit, because her lips gently curve into a ghost of a smile.

"Alright."

Hiruzen smiles back. "Now then," braces himself, "would you like to know what happened?"

* * *

The Hokage is holding something back. Not just a small detail either-he is keeping something very big from her. It makes something cold curl in her gut.

In any case, he had given her little more than a bare-bones recounting of the event: a retrieval mission, her parents had been captured, her father had blabbed. Most likely he had been…. _interrogated_. She isn't sure what interrogation entails exactly, but the word still makes her sick.

"Your mother's name has been etched onto the Memorial Stone." A hero.

Sakura stands. "Thank you, Hokage-sama. You probably have more important work to do."

"Sakura." A gentle sigh. "They left you something."

The girl's eyes widen slightly. Hiruzen opens his top right drawer and pulls out a pair of _kodachi_ and a scroll. "From your father, I believe." They had done extensive tests looking for traps or jutsu performed on the materials before deeming them safe to give back to the child.

She stares immobile at the objects on the desk, an indescribable look on her face. "Take them." He drops them into her hands. "Don't...think so badly of him, Sakura." He pauses. "Both of your parents were good shinobi."

The girl bows, and slips out as silently as she came in. Hiruzen sighs again, and pulls out his pipe. It's been such a long day.

* * *

Sakura walks unseeing back home, _kodachi_ clutched to her chest with numb fingers, heads straight to her bedroom. She doesn't examine at the swords, doesn't even glance at them as she unlocks the box beneath her bed and flings the cover open, throwing the blades beside the stuffed rabbit nestled within before re-locking the case and shoving it back into the darkness. Doesn't even think about them.

She wants to do the same with the scroll, but Sakura has never been able to resist scrolls. With trembling fingers, she slowly unrolls the stiff parchment, only one thought bouncing through her head, the shadow of a promise: ' _I'll bring you a present.'_

"What a stupid promise to keep." A choked whisper.

It is a beginner's genjutsu scroll. A note falls out from the folds in her father's spiky handwriting.

 _Your Academy report said you have a lot of genjutsu potential! Practice hard Sakura-chan! Make us proud. I love you._

A sob.

" _Idiot."_

The tears come.


	4. Chapter 4

This chapter and the next (still being written) were originally supposed to be one, but I promised a speedy upload so I split them. If this chapter seems hastily written, please let me know.

I also think I will continue with the shorter chapters (compared to chapter 2) and hopefully update more often. Let me know if you disagree with this format.

Thank you again to everyone who read/reviewed/favorited/followed-I am a very happy chipmunk right now :) Those were some lovely reviews!

Lastly, this story does not have a beta, although I hope that is not too apparent in the writing!

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

The genjutsu scroll is useless. Perched on the branch of a tall maple tree, Sakura peers cautiously once again through a thick cluster of leaves, towards the pathway winding through the park around twenty feet away. Two women are slowly strolling towards the tree, shopping bags in hand. Quickly running her hands through the now-familiar seals, Sakura again closes her eyes in concentration, releasing a quick burst of chakra.

The women pass underneath her tree and walk on, completely oblivious. Completely unaffected.

"Oh, curses." Sakura levels a heated glare at the giant log lying innocently at the edge of the path. The one that the women were supposed to walk around-because it was supposed to appear in the _center_ of the path.

Whipping out the scroll again, Sakura scowls at the instructions. The technique is called "Myopia"-a stupid name for a stupid jutsu, in her opinion. The caster is supposed to be able to make the victim (or victims) perceive objects to be positioned slightly away from where the objects really are-like a log, for example.

Unfortunately, the scroll provides next to no instructions aside from the string of seals, each accompanied by a neatly drawn-and completely useless-diagram of the hand sign, and a vague suggestion to "envision the desired effects" of the jutsu in her mind.

Once again, completely useless.

Sakura resists the urge to crumple the sheet and lets out a deep breath, three seconds away from giving up and paying a visit to the library instead. The scroll had claimed that theory at such an early stage only causes confusion, and thus some simple exercises like "Myopia" should be mastered first, but Sakura had always been a theory nerd. Iruka-sensei had said that she excelled at written tests, and Sakura has a feeling that reading up on mechanisms of genjutsu will only help her. Right now, it feels like she is groping around in the dark, trying to practice without knowing _how_ -she doesn't even think she is using the right amount of chakra yet.

Skimming over the directions for the upteenth time, Sakura tries to figure out what "envisioning the desired effects" is supposed to mean: is she supposed to image the person walking around thin air? Or maybe visualize the log shifting to the middle of the path?

She really needs better instructions.

Or maybe this is all a mistake and she is only good at chakra control exercises. After all, they've only just begun basic genjutsu meditation techniques at the Academy-surely that is much too early to accurately determine if someone actually has potential.

With a groan, Sakura covers her face with her hands. She'll try one more time, just once more-

A loud gasp. "OH MY KAMI, is that a fairy?!"

Sakura slips.

With a squeak, she tumbles downward, barely managing to attach her left foot to the bottom of the branch with chakra. Upside-down and swinging, she comes face-to-face with wide, dark eyes just as surprised as her own.

The older boy gapes, jaw working up and down. And then he explodes.

"YOU REALLY **ARE** A FAIRY!"

Sakura's concentration wavers, just for an instant. She falls.

"AHH-"

Strong arms deftly catch her, and then she is being encircled in warm, dark cloth. And squeezed. Very tightly.

"Oh my Kami, hello chibi! Sorry for distracting you, are you alright!? Hey Itachi look! I caught a chibi-fairy! ITACHI!" He barrels on.

"You're suffocating her, Shisui."

The cloth around her face seems to freeze for a moment, and then she is released. Taking big gulps of air, Sakura closes her eyes and vaguely waves off the barrage of apologies her attacker is throwing her way.

"I'm Uchiha Shisui and this is my cousin Itachi-just call him 'Tachi though, he doesn't mind!" The older boy grins at her once she's recovered, spiky hair seeming to tremble with the force of his cheer. He sprawls on the ground beside her and tugs his companion down with him.

'He's odd,' Sakura decides. She kind of likes it.

The other boy, Itachi-san, looks strangely familiar. She stares up at him and tries to place where she's seen those eyes, that slight smile…..

'His eyes are quite warm,' she realizes. And...he seems amused? The boy elegantly sweeps his ponytail over his shoulder.

Sakura's eyes widen. "Oh! You're the boy I met that day! While training!" She blushes faintly at the embarrassing memory. So recent, and yet it seems like it happened a lifetime ago, to a different person...a different Sakura. "I'm sorry for leaving so quickly back then, Itachi-san, I am happy we get to meet again."

"It is no problem at all." Itachi is regarding her with a look in his eyes that she cannot place. Scrutinizing her. Sakura wonders if he sees the changes in her that she can hardly understand herself, feels the difference between the light-hearted girl that existed mere weeks ago and this numb shell that wanders now. She wonders if he sees the same emptiness in her eyes that she cringes away from every morning, in the mirror.

Shisui breaks the silence. "You guys have met before?" He sounds surprised. "When was this?"

"A few weeks ago. You were...away, Shisui." Shisui's face seems to darken for a moment in understanding. He turns back to Sakura with a smile.

"Hey, so what's your name, Chibi-chan?" He tugs on a lock of pink hair as her eyes widen in realization.

"I am very sorry for my rudeness!" She exclaims in a rush. Itachi's eyes suddenly narrow. "My name is Haruno Sakura, nice to meet you."

She immediately knows something is wrong. Shisui is frozen, face pale. Itachi is carefully impassive, but she feels it. Feels cold.

"H-Haruno…?" Shisui looks lost, almost. Stricken. Sakura nods past the ice flowering in her gut.

"Should you not be at the Academy at this time?" Itachi cuts in.

"Right! You're an Academy student aren't you? You do look around Sasuke's age." With a glance at Itachi, Shisui seems to shake himself out of his thoughts, flashing her a reassuring smile.

"I'm eight. But I'm skipping." Sakura murmurs, hanging her head slightly. What had seemed so justified in her mind now sounds like a weakness before these two older, confident-looking males.

Unbidden, snippets of memory resurface in her mind: taunting remarks, shunning sneers, a comment to a friend- _oh, it's the Haruno girl again, did you hear that story about her dad? My mom told me not to get too close to her_ -and a side-eye, Iruka-sensei's attempt to talk to her after class. Surprisingly, Ami and her friends had yet to approach her directly, but Sakura could feel their cruel stares, their mocking whispers, snubbing laughter.

Sakura needed to get away.

She never realized that escape is more than just avoiding a building.

Shisui opens his mouth, but Itachi beats him to it. "What were you doing in the tree? I would expect areas closer to the marketplace to be more entertaining than a deserted park at the edge of the village." Shisui gapes in bewilderment at his normally reticent cousin. He is calmly ignored.

"I was practicing," Sakura mumbles, "a genjutsu." She nods at the scroll lying rolled up on the grass beside her.

Shisui's eyebrows shoot up. "Huhh...may I see?" She hands him the scroll.

Unrolling the parchment with a quick flick of his wrist, he skims through the document and snorts, handing the paper over to Itachi. "It's kind of cute! You should try it Itachi." Shisui chuckles.

Sakura can't help the blush that stains her cheeks yet again, shame and failure welling up in her chest. She casts her eyes to the ground.

The boys notice. "Hey what's wrong? Chibi-chan?" A warm hand lands on her shoulder.

Sakura flicks her gaze at him quickly, then diverts her attention back to the grass. "It's not going very well."

She feels his shock. "Wait, what?! Chibi-chan, you're telling me that you're _capable of standing upside down on a tree with only one leg_ but haven't yet figured out how to execute a beginner genjutsu?!" He sputters a bit.

Sakura almost feel defensive-almost. Somehow, his voice doesn't sound mocking really, and his gaze holds no hint of condescension. Only genuine surprise, and bafflement. Sakura nods.

Sitting back on his heels, Shisui squints at her with a look of comical intensity. "How's your taijutsu?" He shoots out suddenly.

"Average."

"Ninjutsu?"

"..A bit below average," Sakura mumbles, a bit sheepish. 'I've gotten better!' she wants to say, but she knows it makes no difference. She bites her lip.

"Weapons training?"

"...Same."

Shisui is nodding, a smile of something akin to understanding starting to stretch across his face.

"Genjutsu?"

"We haven't really done anything besides meditation yet, although Iruka-sensei thinks I might have potential." And he might be wrong. Sakura presses her hands together in her lap.

Itachi is smirking at her for some reason.

"Chakra control? Theory?" Shisui continues rapid-fire.

Sakura considers.

"...Good."

Shisui beams at her. "I see!"

"See what?" Sakura frowns.

"It allllll makes sense now." He drawls, folding his hands behind his head. He nudges her with his knee, face split in a shit-eating grin.

Sakura tries to maintain her calm facade, but finds her eyebrow twitching in irritation in spite of herself. There is just something so annoyingly open, friendly, about the boy that chisels through barriers with ease.

"Please enlighten me." She shoots him a slightly deadpan look.

His grin grows impossibly wider. "You know that ninjutsu is by far the most commonly practiced discipline in the Five Nations, right?"

Sakura nods. "Taijutsu is not that rare either."

"Still nowhere near as popular as ninjutsu though." Shisui shrugs. "And Konoha is an outlier since we have some big clans that specialize in taijutsu."

Throwing an arm around her shoulders, he leans in. "Now." A smirk. "Disciplines like genjutsu and and medical jutsu and fuuinjutsu-I don't think the Academy teaches it but the field is mostly about sealing-those techniques are very rarely studied. Know why?"

A subtle glance at Itachi results in nothing but amused ebony eyes and-unbelievably-an innocent blink.

Sakura can't resist a sigh, and shakes her head. She sneaks Itachi a half-hearted glare.

"Because those fields require _specialization_!" Shisui throws his arms wide without warning, and flashes Sakura a thousand-watt smile. "Proficiency in disciplines like medical jutsu and fuuinjutsu require high levels of ability in specific areas such as chakra control and intelligence."

He scratches his head. "And I suppose taijutsu is hard to pick up because of the extraordinary amounts of determination needed to endure the extreme physical trainings that develop the body's speed and strength. Ninjutsu though!"

Scrunching up his nose, Shisui twists his features into an attempt at seriousness. "Ninjutsu is...hmm, the easiest to get good at!" He scratches his head again-his thinking pose, Sakura guesses. "Although of course, it's hard to be a _master_ at it, just like any other field." He adds hastily. "How should I put it.."

"Ninjutsu is the most accessible discipline." Itachi fixes Sakura with a warm, unreadable stare. "Unlike the other fields, ninjutsu involves a mixture of many different factors such as stamina and chakra control, but one only needs to be above a certain threshold in all of these areas. So to perform a ninjutsu technique, you need not be too advanced in any particular skill, you just need to be 'good enough' at all of the needed skills. The rest is just practice."

"Exactly!" Shisui nods his head furiously in agreement. "And that's probably why you're having trouble with the genjutsu here." He waves at the scroll lying innocently on the grass. "Based on your Academy performances, it seems like you haven't yet reached the thresholds in some of the skills needed to perform this jutsu yet. Plus, you seem to be a theory type."

He flicks Sakura on the forehead, laughing at her scowl. "Techniques like these that are mostly just blind practice-'ask no questions, just follow the directions'-might actually be harder for you."

Sakura ponders this information with new hope. It does sound logical, and the possibility that she isn't, in fact, a failure, is very uplifting. However.

"This is a genjutsu scroll."

Shisui grins knowingly at her. "Yeah?"

She slaps his arm. Lightly. But still-Itachi smirks.

" _Genjutsu_. Not ninjutsu. Why are there thresholds here? What skills do I need to have to perform genjutsu?"

"Ooooooo, aren't you an observant little minx, Chibi-chan?!" He gets slapped again. Harder.

"Alright, alright. How about a fun fact? There are three types of genjutsu!" He giggles with glee. Giggles. Sakura isn't sure if she is more disturbed or amused by the sight.

"The type you were trying to perform is actually closer to ninjutsu than true genjutsu. It's also the only type of 'genjutsu' that you will learn in the Academy, since it is more accessible to students. Most shinobi don't have the abilities needed to become wielders of the other two types of genjutsu!" He crosses his arms and shoots Sakura an expectant look, but she doesn't notice.

Eyebrows furrowed in concentration, Sakura casts her mind back to the genjutsu theory texts she's read in class, as well as the texts she had come across before in the library. Nowhere had the texts mentioned three types of genjutsu…

"Where can I find more information about this?" Sakura starts to feel a bit lost. "If the Academy senseis don't teach this…..I haven't found a genjutsu technique scroll on this topic yet.." Her bottom lip finds its way between her teeth again.

"You probably won't find too much direct information on this subject from the library." Itachi's smooth tenor soothes even as his words incite further worry in her. "Nor will you find true genjutsu techniques in scrolls, because unlike ninjutsu, which focuses on building up arsenal of techniques to have at your fingertips, true genjutsu is not gathering a set of techniques." He smiles, a small lift of his lips, a lightening of dark eyes. "It's mastering and understanding one technique so well that everything within the realm of imagination you can shift with merely a flick of a wrist, a twitch of an eyebrow."

Shisui makes eye contact with Itachi, eyes swimming with some unnameable emotion. Something like understanding flows between them. Sakura looks away.

"So I'm out of options." No Academy teachers, no books...her _father_ was a genjutsu user, she remembers. Had been, once.

Shisui laughs. A light, oddly sad chuckle in the evening air. The sun brushes the trees in the distance. "Don't be silly."

He stands up, pulls Itachi up with him. "I'm pretty good at it too, you know." He ruffles her petal locks.

"I'll teach you genjutsu."


	5. Chapter 5

Fun fact: I started this story because I wanted to write chapter 2. Now that I'm planning out the story, I no longer like chapter 2. *sigh*

As always, a huge thank you to everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed/read this story! You guys are really motivating! :)

To the reviewers by the way: I love love love your comments! You are all so kind! :)

Lastly, this is planned to be a loooonggg story, so note that the main plot won't be coming all at once. There will be a lot of slice-of-life(?) chapters like this one as Sakura slowly grows up. Are you guys in it for the long haul?

* * *

Chapter 5

Sweat trails down her spine, soaks into her hair, pools at her collarbones. Striking out with her left palm, Sakura narrowly avoids the fist heading towards her jaw and performs a sweeping kick that is easily blocked. Breathing heavily, she quickly switches to defense, erratically dodging the well-practiced set of punches being aimed at her torso. She is quicker, but her opponent's better taijutsu form means she can do little more than evade the attacks.

Plus, her stamina is running out fast. With one last burst of speed, Sakura launches herself forward, blocking a fist with her arm and slipping momentarily past the boy's guard with the movement, right hand stretching towards his throat-

"Halt!" It registers as a distant echo in her ear, and her brain starts in confusion, fingers slowing-

And then she is on the ground, arm twisted behind her, a knee digging into her back.

"Okay everyone, that's all for today! Thank your partners, take ten minutes or so to cool down and then you guys can head on home. Remember to study for the theory test on Friday!" Dismissing the class with a cheerful wave, Iruka-sensei returns to scribbling away on his clipboard.

The pressure on her back disappears, and Sakura claws her way to her feet, lungs fluctuating frantically. Turning to bow to her sparring partner, she finds that he has already wandered off to rejoin his friends. They laugh, and snicker, and a couple glance over at her with smirks on their faces. Something burns coldly in her and Sakura looks away, begins to run through a few stretches.

Missing two weeks of lessons has put her taijutsu skills firmly at the bottom of the class. Muscles screaming at the return of long-forgotten sensations, Sakura thanks the gods that she hasn't stopped her daily jogs around the village-at least she still _has_ muscles. She guesses she should also be grateful towards Shisui for forcing her to return to school. He had refused to teach her genjutsu otherwise, laughing that at the level her ninjutsu and chakra levels are now, she'd never be able to execute any genjutsu. Sakura scowls at the memory.

She is suddenly pulled out of her thoughts when a hand roughly grips her hair.

"Long time no see, Forehead." Ami sneers. "Nice taijutsu skills there." A snicker erupts from somewhere next to the purple-haired girl, and Sakura immediately smooths out her facial expressions. From the corner of her eye, she spots Fuki along with two taller girls standing behind Ami, casually blocking the group from Iruka-sensei's sight.

Sakura doesn't struggle.

"What do you want." She has a feeling that the hit-and-run method won't work this time with all the students around, and Ami is physically much stronger. Not to mention the cronies grouped around her.

Although, Sakura considers, such a big commotion would definitely draw Iruka-sensei's attention.

"Oh, we just realized that we haven't thanked you yet for getting us in trouble with Iruka-sensei!" Ami yanks her hair hard enough to bring tears to her eyes. "Of course you would have to run to a sensei to deal with your problems." The group sniggers.

"You know," continues Ami, leaning in to her ear, "even teachers can't solve all your problems." She leans back, face twisted in a look of pleasure. The type of pleasure that comes from others' pain. "Is that why you've been hiding for so long?" she whispers. "Did Iruka-sensei let you down 'cuz he couldn't bring your traitor father back?"

Something in Sakura snaps, and she whirls around so quickly her hair is pulled out of Ami's grasp, fist pulled back, vision blank save for the flash of fear in the other girl's eyes. ' _Stop, stop!'_ A voice screams in her mind.

"Oi."

Sakura stops.

The boy's spiky hair is pulled back in a ponytail, dark eyes regarding them with apparent boredom. Sakura drops her fist, jaw tensing.

"Fighting's not allowed at school, you know." The boy, whose name Sakura either forgot or never bothered to learn, sticks his hands in his trouser pockets.

"I might have have to report you if you continue." He levels a lazy stare at Ami.

The girl's face is an odd mixture of wary and furious. "Nara." She spits, face dark. "Don't you have some clouds to watch, or something?" The boy shrugs a lethargic shoulder.

"I was trying. You're too loud."

Ami snarls. "Nara, this is _none of your business_ -"

Nara-boy yawns, "Oh hey, Iruka-sensei's coming over." And he is: clipboard under one arm, a first-aid kit in the other.

With a start, the bullies quickly step back from the pair. "You better watch out, Forehead!" Ami hisses in parting, and the girls send her and the boy quick glares before hurrying toward the Academy doors.

"You didn't have to do that." Sakura looks down, straightens her hair. "Now they'll hate you too."

"Ehh, they already hate me," the boy shrugs, "my clan's bigger than theirs."

He snorts. "How troublesome." He shoots her a 'what-can-you-do?' look, and rolls his eyes.

Sakura has to fight the twitch of her lips.

"...Thanks." She pauses. "For saving me."

'For _stopping_ me.' She clenches her hands into fists.

The boy hums in response. "No problem," he gets out through a full-body yawn. "I'm Shikamaru."

Watching him is starting to make her a little bit sleepy as well. She smiles a little. "I'm Sakura."

"I know." Shikamaru smirks at her. "But you clearly didn't know my name, so."

"Wha-" Sakura sputters, "How'd you-was it that obvious?"

To her surprise, the boy starts laughing. "Your poker face isn't that great."

Sakura opens her mouth on reflex, closes it, then opens it again, mind caught somewhere between indignance and amusement.

A hand on her head cuts off her frozen train of thought. "Ready to go home kids?" Iruka smiles down at the two of them and ruffles their hair. Shikamaru scowls and pulls away.

The training yard is nearly empty, and Sakura offers the man an apologetic smile. "Sorry Iruka-sensei, we'll be going now!" In an uncharacteristically bold move, she grasps onto Shikamaru's shirt sleeve with one hand and tentatively starts to tug him away. The boy-surprisingly-follows without complaint.

"Bye kids! And Sakura-it's good to have you back." The words wrap around her like a blanket, and she whips her head around in time to catch the big, sincere smile on his face.

It is hard to resist the responding curve of her own lips as she drags her new acquaintance-friend?-out to the Academy gates.

"Shika-kun! Your late!" A sharp-looking woman calls out as they near the entrance, brown hair flowing freely down her back, a woven basket in one hand.

"Aw, crap." Shikamaru mutters by Sakura's side. "I forgot-I'm supposed to help pick up groceries today." He heaves a long suffering sigh.

"Don't sigh at me, young man!" The woman drapes an affectionate hand over his shoulder, mouth breaking out into an amused smile. "And who's your friend?" She turns her coffee gaze onto the pinkette.

Her body reacts faster than her brain, insides immediately freezing up while her mind hastens to figure out why.

"Okaa-san. This is Haruno Sakura."

 _Ah._

Her shoulders stiffen. Shikamaru knows about her-his mother must know too.

"Oh?" The woman stares at her for a moment, but gives no other indication that anything is out of the norm. "Well, Sakura-chan, my name is Nara Yoshino. It is a pleasure to meet you." She flashes Sakura warm smile.

For a moment, Sakura can only stare in befuddlement. Then her manners kick in. Feeling like her body is moving through water, she clumsily manages a bow. "Thank you, Nara-san! It is a pleasure to meet you as well!"

Shikamaru snickers. Straightening up to shoot him a glare, Sakura is faced instead with his mother blinking at her with an unreadable expression.

And then the woman grins.

"Awwwww, what a sweet young lady!" Nara-san cooes. "Call me Yoshino! Nara-san is my husband anyway." The woman snorts. "It's great that Shika-kun has found a friend as polite as you! I hope you rub off on him," she winks at Sakura, then narrows her eyes at Shikamaru in a mock-scolding look. "Kami-sama knows my son needs to learn some manners. And some work ethic!"

"Okaa-san!" Scowling, Shikamaru pulls away from his mother and harrumphs. "How troublesome."

The woman laughs. "Just teasing, Shika-kun."

"Let's just go to the market."

"Ah right, I nearly forgot!" Fingers tightening around her basket, Yoshino-san straightens and turns to Sakura. "Would you like to come with us, Sakura-chan? You can stay for dinner! You look way too skinny for a girl your age-are you eating enough?" The lady flashes Sakura a worried, probing look. A shot of warmth trickles down the girl's spine.

"Aa Yoshino-san, I know how to cook." Sakura bites her lip. "Unfortunately though, I cannot join you today-I have to meet someone soon."

Yoshino-san waves off her apology with a smile. "No problem, Sakura-chan! Some other time then-maybe next week?"

"That sounds wonderful, Yoshino-san." Sakura smiles.

"Perfect!" The woman beams. "Shika-kun will let you know which day. I look forward to seeing you again soon!" Wrapping her arm around her son's neck once more, she proceeds to drag him toward the marketplace. "'Bye Sakura!" She chirps.

Shikamaru grunts and raises a hand in farewell. "See you."

Feeling oddly light, Sakura nods back, and waves at them until they disappear from sight down the street.

"Goodbye Yoshino-san, Shikamaru!"

* * *

She is late. Skidding to a halt by the training posts stationed at the center of training ground six, Sakura frantically scans the clearing for the any hint of black. Finding none, she sags against the nearest pillar and pants heavily, eyes cast towards the ground, trying to ignore the little pit of disappointment swirling around in her gut.

The fault is hers, she knows. The heavy feeling grows, darkens. She had gotten caught up with Ami's words…

"BOO."

Shrieking, Sakura whirls around, loses her balance, and falls on her butt in a rush of vertigo. Cackling ensues above her.

"HAHAHA. You should have seen your face Chibi-chan!" The boy doubles over, arms wrapped around his middle. Sakura kicks him.

"Ow!" Wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, he shoots her a parody of a glare. "It's your fault for being so unaware of your surroundings, you know! We're going to have to work on that…." He giggles again.

Lips forming a slight pout, Sakura nevertheless feels a rush of relief chase away her previous gloom as she climbs back to her feet and dusts herself off.

He had waited.

"Sorry for my lateness, Shisui-sensei."

"Oiiiii, since when did I become a sensei?! Just because I'm going to give you some genjutsu pointers doesn't mean I deserve that title!" He ruffles his hair. "Besides, it makes me feel kinda old."

"But, it would be extremely rude of me to merely call you 'Shisui-san', wouldn't it?" Sakura furrows her eyebrows as the pair settles beneath a tree at the edges of the clearing.

"Hmm. How about 'Shisui-senpai' then? Oh! And don't worry about it," he waves a hand vaguely, "you weren't that late anyway. I actually got here after you." He offers her a sheepish smile.

Sakura is torn between exasperation and amusement. "What!? And here I thought-"

"GREAT, let's start the lesson!" Shisui chirps with a megawatt grin. "Ready, Chibi-chan?"

Sakura sighs. "As ready as ever." Her blood pumps in anticipation.

"Okay, let's start with some theory." The boy's countenance immediately calms and sharpens, tone becoming serious.

"I told you that there are three types of genjutsu the other day, so I'll begin with that." Turning his head a little, he points at a small white mushroom peeking out between the grass at their feet. "Chibi-chan, how do you know that this mushroom is here?"

Sakura blinks. "I...can see it?"

A warm palm settles across her eyes. "Now, where is the mushroom? Find it."

Confused, Sakura reaches out her hand and slowly gropes across the grass until her fingers brush against soft, velvety sponge. "Here?"

"How do you know that the mushroom is there?"

"...I can feel it?" Sakura stops. "Oh!"

"Yeah?" He removes his hand.

"My senses. I can sense it!"

"Exactly. And that's just partially the answer." Shisui ruffles her hair. "The three types of genjutsu correspond with the three main 'stages' of the process that allows us to perceive the world outside of ourselves. The senses are the middle stage, because in order for us to sense something, that object must actually exist in the world. And once our senses receive information from our surroundings, they relay their findings to the brain to be processed, which is the last stage. Does that make sense?"

Sakura feels her forehead crinkle. "I think so. So each type of genjutsu...tries to create illusions of these three stages?"

Shisui huffs out a surprised laugh. "You're a smart cookie! That's mostly correct. Rather than 'create' though, I think the word 'manipulate' might be a better fit." He scratches his head. "Okay let me give you an example, that will probably make things a lot easier."

He gestures to the mushroom again, eyebrows furrowed as he gathers his thoughts. "Okay. Take the mushroom again. Say I want you to see _two_ mushrooms instead of one. I can do this in three ways. First, I can create a 'shadow mushroom' that looks, feels, even _tastes_ like a mushroom if I think adding in a taste element is important-this is the first stage. Conversely, I can tinker with your senses in a way that makes them see, feel, taste the second mushroom even though _no_ 'shadow object' is actually in the space where the mushroom appears to be. Lastly, I can mess with your brain so that even though there is no 'shadow mushroom' in that spot _and_ your senses actually don't feel anything, your mind _still thinks_ there is a mushroom there. You following?"

Sakura nods, eyes alight with interest.

"Great! Now take a different scenario: say I actually want you to think that there are no mushrooms here at all. Genjutsu can also accomplish this by 'shrouding' the mushroom-essentially a camouflaging process that hides the object from our senses. Or, we can cast a genjutsu that tricks the senses into sensing nothing even if they do encounter the mushroom. Lastly, we can manipulate the mind directly to stop the sensory information from registering." The boy smiles down at the frowning pinkette. "You look like you have a question, Chibi-chan."

"Well," Sakura hesitates, "the three types of genjutsu sound like very different processes. Does that mean that performing all of them will require learning three sets of techniques?"

"Excellent question!" Shisui beams approvingly. "And the answer is kind of 'yes', but mostly 'no'." He laughs. "That probably wasn't very helpful."

Sakura looks at him dryly.

"So this analogy probably isn't perfect, but it should illustrate the idea." He rubs his chin. "It's kind of like if I asked an artist to paint me the same scene using oil, acrylic, and watercolor. Each medium behaves differently, so he would have to know how to comfortably switch between them. But the underlying knowledge-how to shade, set a perspective, etc.-is the same. As long as that artist has the fundamental skills down, he should be able to acquaint himself with the different mediums without too much effort."

Leaning his back against the trunk, Shisui folds his arms behind his head and regards Sakura with a speculative gleam in his eyes.

"I told you before that genjutsu is a discipline that requires extensive specialization, right?"

Sakura nods.

"Well, besides excellent chakra control and high intelligence, the other main ability needed to master genjutsu is actually artistic talent. Creativity." He closes his eyes with a smile. "You're clearly more than qualified in the chakra control and smarts departments. How'd you feel about your artsy side?"

Honestly, Sakura has never really attempted painting before. She bites her lip. The Academy doesn't exactly have an art class, either.

"...I can do a bit of calligraphy?"

Shisui snickers, legs stretched out in a picture of lazy contentment. "I guess that counts-could come in handy if you ever want to learn fuuinjutsu." Straightening suddenly, he props an elbow on one bent knee and flashes Sakura a roguish smile. "We won't know until we start, though!"

'Already?' Sakura's eyes widen, simultaneously excited and apprehensive. Fisting clammy palms, she unconsciously leans forward. What if she actually has no art talent whatsoever? What if she...lets him down? What if he loses interest in teaching-in _her_?

 _What if_ -

"But not today! Exercises are going to start next time, I'm afraid!" And then Shisui proceeds to throw his head back and guffaw obnoxiously. "Relax, Chibi-chan! You look more wound up than a rusty screw!" He pauses. "That made no sense. Well anyway, I have a feeling you're going to be just fine, so stop worrying!" He throws a handful of grass at her with a casual flick of his wrist.

Combing grass out of her hair, Sakura levels him with a glare. "Why are we starting next time?"

"You need to get comfortable with the different 'mediums' first before you can actually do anything," he explains, forming air quotes with his fingers. "To do that, you're going to have to do a LOT of reading. Homework!" He nods in mock seriousness. "I'm leaving for a mission tomorrow-it'll probably last around five or six days, so why don't we meet here again next week? Same day, same time."

"Sounds good, Shisui-senpai."

"Awesome. While I'm gone, here's your assignment. First, I need you to go read up on how the senses work: how do the eyes take in information? Your skin? Your taste buds?" He scratches his head in his signature thinking pose. "I also want you to read up on the anatomy of the brain: what parts of the brain are linked to which parts of the body, which parts house our memories, etc. You follow?"

Sakura nods silently, already starting to plan out her week in her head. "I can find all of these books at the library, right?"

"Of course! They're located closer to the back-not many people look for them, so you'll likely have no trouble getting everything. That's probably more than enough reading for one week, but in case you have some extra time, see if you can read up on how light works, or something. Like," he waves a hand vaguely, "figure out what a molecule is, and what kinds of molecules correspond with different scents, things like that." He snorts. "That probably made no sense to you whatsoever."

Sakura shrugs. "I will make sure to read up on it! I am a bit of a bookworm anyway, so this will be fun." Smiling crookedly, she looks down and tugs at the dark blue ribbon in her hair. "I...already know what a molecule is, too, so maybe I can learn faster."

"Awwwwww, you're so kawaii Chibi-chan!" The older boy wraps her in a tight hug without warning, squeezing her like a teddy bear.

"Oof." Weakly beating his chest with her fist, she gasps for air when he pulls back. She really hopes he doesn't start making a habit out of this.

"It's difficult information-most students won't start learning about this stuff until their last year at the Academy, and only those who are interested in things like genjutsu or medical jutsu-but I think you can take it." He pats her head, and starts to stand up.

"Also, if you have any questions at all we can definitely go over them next time! Or feel free to ask Itachi-he's home this week, so he'll be going to the Academy to pick up Sasuke every day."

"Okay." Sakura nods. "Ano...where is Itachi-senpai?" Standing up herself, she avoids Shisui's eyes as she fusses with the bottom of her shirt. The pair starts to walk.

Itachi isn't her teacher, there's no reason why he should come to her lessons-

"He's at a clan meeting right now."

Something in Shisui's tone makes her look up.

His eyes are oddly unreadable, face uncharacteristically still. "He wanted to come. It was a last-minute meeting," he explains softly. "He's the son of the clan head, so he couldn't skip it."

They reach the main path.

"I see." She doesn't know what else to say. "I hope it goes well."

"Me too." He sighs. Rakes a hand through his hair. "He'll probably be here next week though! Get ready Chibi-chan, it's going to be exciting!" His face splits into an evil grin.

"O-okay….I'm going to go now." Sakura subtly backs away. "Thank you for the lesson, Shisui-senpai! Good luck on your mission!"

He chuckles as he starts off in the opposite direction. "Remember to go to class, Chibi-chan! If you don't improve your stamina and physical technique this week you're never going to make it through our next lesson!"

His ominous cackle echoes in her ears all the way home.

* * *

Was the theory too complicated?

Some reviewers seem to have questions, so I thought I would try to either 1) answer them here if they are not too plot-based, or 2) cackle. (Please let me know if you would rather I not reply to you here.)

curious viewer: Firstly, thank you for letting me know how you felt about the training bits! Very very helpful; love love love :) As for your question, this is a Sakura-centric not a Team 7-centric, so...mwahahha :P

Allie: I am glad you liked it! I can't believe it made you cry-that is the greatest compliment! :D About your question: interesting idea...I wasn't planning on it, but maybe! :)

xXWinterRoseXx: Mwahahha! ;P

CelticSpring: ...Kekekeke ;)

Teyona: Fufufufufufufu~ ;D


	6. Chapter 6

I am so sorry for the late update. Again. (I got sidetracked. Again.) Please forgive me.

Chapters 6-8 were originally conceived to be one chapter...but then it got too long, and I thought a shorter update now might be preferable to a longer update later haha.

Thank you to everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed/read this story! You guys are AMAZING :)

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

The morning breeze is a gentle caress against her face as she rests, cross-legged in the shade. Her classmates lie scattered around the Academy field in groups of twos and threes, some bickering and giggling as they wait for Iruka-sensei to finish arranging his notes, others sprawled across the grass sulking.

Sakura taps her fingers against her knee. In fact, most of the kids look to be varying degrees of disgruntled. Probably because the Academy is starting to schedule morning classes on weekends: there is simply too much to learn and not enough time.

Hence, a two-hour long meditation class on a Saturday.

Personally, Sakura doesn't really understand why the prospect of weekend classes are met with such dismay by her classmates-she, at least, is infinitely grateful for any chance to learn and protect herself. Better to lose a couple of lazy afternoons than to involuntarily lose her head one day.

With a sigh, Sakura leans back against a tree, allowing her mind to calm in preparation for an intense meditation session….

"Oi." comes a grunt from above. Sakura opens her eyes to Nara Shikamaru collapsing to the ground on her left, head hanging heavily from drooping shoulders as a muffled yawn hisses past his lips.

Sakura levels him with a neutral-flat-stare. It's become a bit of a routine over the past few days.

"You're late."

This prompts a heavy sigh from the boy, along with a string of half-hearted mumblings about 'troublesome classes' and 'troublesome mothers' and 'troublesome birds' until he decides that complaining is starting to get troublesome, too.

She stares at him from the corner of her eye, one side of her lips ever-so-slightly curved. She doesn't know why, but this boy is refreshing. His laziness, grouchiness, easiness in interacting with her-for the first time in a long while, she feels almost comfortable.

A knot within her chest loosens slightly, and she inhales.

"You're probably not in trouble though. No one missed you."

He sputters and she casually looks away, biting down a faint smile as she runs a hand through her hair. It's getting long, she notices vaguely-almost to her shoulder blades now, and her bangs now hang below her chin. Longer than it's ever been. She tries not to think about it too hard.

"Do you think I should get a haircut?" she regards the still-indignant boy abrupt tilt of her head.

His scowl softens, and he blinks in bewilderment. "Uhm, if you want to, I guess? It doesn't really matter does it?" He looks away. "It looks nice right now," he offers in a mumble.

"Oh. Th-thanks. I just thought, my forehead….you know…." She makes a vague gesture at her exposed forehead, blinking helplessly.

"What about it?"

He looks so confused that Sakura has to look away, something thick and burning bubbling through her gut that she cannot name. "It's _gigantic_ ," she rolls her eyes, tries to sound angry-like she _knows_ , she _accepts it_ , like ' _how can not see it aren't you supposed to be a genius?_ '-but her voice is so small, and the burnings starting to travel up her spine, and Ami's laughing at another girl's joke twenty feet away, and-and what a _stupid_ thing to be worrying about, now.

"Obviously," she scoffs.

"..What?" He sounds so lost it's almost comical, "It's like the same size as mine. Do _I_ have a big forehead?" And now he sounds vaguely worried, which actually does make Sakura chuckle, a short huff of amusement that is really more like three-fourths disbelief and one-fourth exasperation.

"Nevermind. I guess it doesn't really matter."

A snort. "Okay. But your forehead is actually totally fine, you know that right." The end of his sentence tapering off into a yawn.

"...Okay."

He hums in acknowledgement and might have said something else, but then Iruka-sensei is there and passing out blindfolds and the happy buzzing of chatter is soon smothered into a low drone of confusion.

"This will all make sense in a moment kids, don't worry!" Iruka-sensei smiles as he hands out the last few strips of black cloth. He then sits at the center of the clearing and crosses his legs.

"Today we are going to begin lessons on a new type of meditation called chakra meditation." He waits a moment for the wave of whisperings to subside. "Unlike normal meditation, which we do to increase your reserves of spiritual energy, chakra meditation is primarily used to improve your sensitivity and control over your chakra. We learned in class before how chakra is created at our centers through the mixing of spiritual and physical energy. This chakra can then be drawn to other parts of our bodies through chakra pathways…."

It is at this point that Sakura gives Shikamaru a sharp jab to the side with her elbow. The poor victim chokes in the middle of a deep inhale and spends the next several seconds gasping-from the pain or lack of air, Sakura isn't sure.

"You know, I hear that constant naps when you're young leads to awful snoring in your teens."

The boy mock-glares at her. "That's just a saying-and even if it were true, your method of 'aid' is still completely unnecessary!"

She offers him a casual shrug using minimal shoulder movement, eyes facing unwaveringly forward; Iruka-sensei's lesson recap has yet to end. "Sure, tell me that again when you get your arm chopped off on a mission because your snoring gave your position away."

"Oiiii," Shikamaru hisses, trying to speak using only the corner of his mouth, "don't jinx it! If that ever happens I'm holding you morally accountable."

"Just trying to keep you out of trouble."

He gives her another glare, grumbles something that sounds vaguely in between a 'thanks' and a 'shove off,' then finishes it with a grumpy 'troublesome' and turns away with a loud huff.

Iruka-sensei is still talking.

Sakura closes her eyes. The breeze is cool against her face, and she thinks, in this transient moment of weightlessness, that she's almost happy, with warmth seeping into her right shoulder from Shikamaru's left, the grass soft beneath her palms, Iruka-sensei's voice a pleasant murmur in the back of her mind. But Shikamaru shifts slightly, and the grass begins to prick at her skin, and Sakura rarely zones out during class, even when she already knows the material. The moment passes.

"Alright, now everyone find a partner or group and see if you can start feeling for your chakra and making it move around your body. Becoming aware of your chakra and getting in tune with it is quite difficult at the beginning, so help each other, share tips and encouragement! Close your eyes and tie those blindfolds on. The darkness should help you focus. Let's get started!" With that, Iruka-sensei grabs his clipboard and begins to meander among the class, checking students' progress as he walks.

"You any good with tying knots in the dark?"

"...Huh?" Sakura replies, eloquently.

"Nevermind," Shikamaru sighs, "turn around. I'll tie your cloth."

Cool darkness slips over her, a sharp contrast to the sunny field, and Sakura blinks a couple of times beneath her blindfold to orient herself. She sees nothing; the cloth is thick and the knot is tight.

"Now do you think you can tie mine without messing up too much?"

"Pfft," Sakura can't help but pout, "better than you can tie your own at least." She shuffles over behind him and feels for his head. Two ends of cloth slip into her hands and she knots them as best she can, working from memory, fumbling around his spiky ponytail.

"Oii! Not the-ouch! Don't pull the hair!" She tugs once more, just because, then pulls away.

"You're _horrible_ , woman."

She smiles, a little, because she knows he can't see. "Hardly, I am barely even a girl yet."

He grumbles again, and she hears him shift around a bit, a soft ensuing _thunk_ as he rests his head against the tree trunk at their backs. He sighs, and for a moment it is quiet.

Then: "I don't feel anything."

She snorts.

"Hey, you laugh woman but I don't see you faring any better!"

"Of course not. You shouldn't be seeing anything right now. Unless you're cheating." She decides it's best not to mention the chakra meditation exercises she's been practicing the past month-at least not during class. It would be too complicated. "I think I'm getting something, kind of."

"Eh, really? Wanna share some tips? How's this supposed to work?"

"It's sort of like a thrumming, mixing ball in your abdomen. It's hard to describe….a spinning center near your gut? You have to really force your mind to calm and be blank before you'll start sensing anything."

He hums in thought. "Alright. Lemme give this another go."

Slipping back into her subconscious, Sakura evens her breathing and concentrates. In the artificial gloom, her chakra spins in a breathtaking web of light throughout her body, and the vision is more vivid than usual as she begins her normal meditation routine of drawing chakra from her core to circulate around all of her pathways. Distantly, she hears the low muttering of Shikamaru-"Still nothing"-and she hums in response, body too peaceful to be disturbed. Slowly, she feels the steady trickle of warmth course through her with the flow of her chakra: up her spine to her forehead, down to the bottoms of her feet, out to the tips of her fingers...

Shikamaru has been silent for a while, she dimly thinks over the soothing rush of chakra in her ears. Gently, naturally, easily, she reaches a bit farther, probes for him in the gloom, slips outwards….

He is asleep.

'Of course,' Sakura thinks. 'How could I have expected anything less.'

His chakra pathways are quiet, and still, and many are empty. Clearly, Shikamaru has not been able to feel his chakra and coax it to flood his channels yet. At his core, the ball of mixing spiritual and physical energy spins erratically, much like the way hers used to whirl uncontrollably before she began her daily meditation exercises. But much slower. In fact, everything about his chakra feels...slow, sluggish, drowsy. The way it steadily thumps in time with his slowing heartbeat, the way it faintly buzzes as if in echo to is long, deep breaths….it's how she figured out he was asleep, she realizes. From the signals that are manifesting in his chakra patterns.

But Sakura has no time to marvel at her new discovery, because as soon as she comes to this understanding she is blinded by a sharp burst of light that overwhelms everything in her inner vision and just continues, on and on, in an endless wave, and then she sees _everything_ -Shikamaru's lazy chakra and the angry fluttering of Ami's energy-the confused flashing of everyone else in the class and the outline of Iruka-sensei's bumpy flow-the cool, dim blue of the trees-the tiny spark of a squirrel scampering up above-a field of light beneath her feet-grass-inlaid with countless jewels-every beetle and spider and ant, she _sees_.

And it _hurts_.

A gasp of pain escapes her as she screws up her eyes and recoils with every fiber of her being, folds within herself, scrambles to pull every lingering strand of chakra back into her core as fast as she can as if scalded-distant voices, muffled movement, a gentle touch on her back, a firm hand at her shoulder-and, finally, cool darkness.

Every last drop of her chakra has been threaded back to her core, still frayed and sensitive but spinning, spinning….safe, shielded. Sakura slowly relaxes.

The blindfold is no longer rubbing against her eyelids. Someone must have taken them off. The grass is soft against her cheeks and arms, and her eyes flutter open to the warm, tender sun, mouth opening to inhale a deep lungful of sweet, fresh air. She sits up.

"Are you alright, Sakura?" Iruka-sensei hovers anxiously above her.

Her brain is a scrambled mix of cotton and gravel. "Yeah, headache." She mumbles, and some other excuses-she isn't sure what. "Stretched my chakra the wrong way maybe. Too dark."

"That's possible. Trying to control your chakra at first may sometimes overstrain you if you're too forceful or abrupt. Are you sure you're alright?"

She nods, head lowered. Most students hadn't noticed the disturbance, blindfolds still on. Only a couple groups nearby had stopped to watch. Like Ami's.

"Yeah, I'll be fine in a few moments."

He seems convinced. "Sure. Tell me if you need anything at all." He nods at her side. "You guys take it easy for a bit, okay?" It is only then that Sakura becomes aware of the sturdy presence at her side, hand still securely at her shoulder. Shikamaru nods, eyebrows furrowed.

Iruka turns away. "Okay class, focus! Blindfolds on, everyone! I'm taking notes on your progress!" He takes out his clipboard, walks off.

They don't move. A breeze ruffles her hair, rustles the trees around her. Sakura closes her eyes again, breaths evening out, heartbeat slowing. She's fine. She's okay.

"What was that?" His voice is quiet. Palm warm through her shirt. She exhales.

"I don't know."

He doesn't press, just pulls her backwards so they are both resting against the tree, and they stay like that, quiet, until Iruka-sensei dismisses the class, and students begin taking off their blindfolds (or not, if they're asleep) and complaining about the lack of results.

"You good now?" It's casual and off-hand and concerned underneath, and she smiles.

"Yeah."

So he releases her shoulder, grins, and stands up, offering her a hand. And she takes it.

"Thanks." He'll understand what she means. "Let's go before Iruka-sensei comes back over here." The man is making his way over already, voice rising over the chatter, bidding them to keep the blindfolds and practice more at home.

She easily slips behind a big gaggle of students and heads for the Academy gates, Shikamaru close behind. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the distinct purple of Ami's hair moving closer, and she increases her pace: slides around a bespectacled boy, ducks beneath the flailing arms of a blonde kid, past a long-haired girl-the gates are in sight-

" _Shi-ka-ma-ru!"_

The boy falters, and then is dragged away. "What, Ino?" She thinks she hears, but she isn't sure-she can't stay to find out. Ami's almost there, and she hastens out the gate and into the crowd of parents waiting outside to pick up their kids. Safe.

Shikamaru's disappeared, and she doesn't even know where to begin looking for him in this sea of legs and torsos. Sakura meanders onward. He likely wasn't going to hang out with her after class anyway. Yoshino-san is probably here somewhere, waiting to pick him up for lunch. But where should she go, now? It's not like she has any Saturday plans, besides afternoon training. Maybe lunch at the marketplace? Expensive. Onigiri? She has some leftover umeboshi at home...okay, good. She isn't that hungry yet, though. Library, then? Library then lunch then training? Okay. Okay, that might be nice.

And then she sees him. Standing at the edge of the crowd. Sakura takes an involuntary step forward, the events of the morning rushing back to her, then hesitates. His presence is as quiet and calming as ever, but….different, somehow. Sakura can't quite put her finger on it. She lingers behind a woman's skirt. And then one of her classmates-Sasuke, she remembers-jumps onto his back and laughs. "Carry me home, aniki!" He shouts. She doesn't hear Itachi's response, but she does catch the miniscule tilt of his lips, the slight warming of his eyes-and Sasuke's arms tighten as he laughs again, hair messy and cheeks bright, and something in Sakura squeezes, and she turns away.

Yes. To the library.

The road is busy and the sun is hot and Sakura doesn't think about anything but what scroll to read next, when she finally reaches the cool shadows of her destination.

"Oii!"

Sakura blinks and slows, allowing the boy to catch up alongside her, huffing and puffing.

"Way to ditch me back there!" He scowls at her.

"I'm sorry. Ami was approaching and then I couldn't find you."

"Oh. Troublesome."

"Your mom isn't picking you up today?"

"Ah, no, I usually go home by myself." He rubs the back of his head. "But anyway, Okaa-san asked if you'd like to come over for dinner tonight?"

"Tonight!" Sakura exclaims, stopping in her tracks. "I mean, of course! But I, I don't have a kimono, or-"

"Oh don't worry about that, it's gonna be super informal, Okaa-san told me to tell you there's no need to dress up."

"Oh. Oh, okay. But I should still make some food to bring with me." She mentally shifts her destination to the marketplace instead. "I guess I'll spend the afternoon making some dessert, then. What do your parents like to eat?"

"Uhmm….well Okaa-san likes anmitsu, and….fruit, I guess-strawberries and peaches and blueberries? Otou-san really likes mochi and red bean stuff...and tea, if that helps?"

They reach the market square and Sakura makes a beeline for the fruit stall, Shikamaru drifting along at her heels.

"That's actually perfect." Sakura picks up a crate of fresh, ripe strawberries. "I'll make some strawberry daifuku then, since I happened to start making some red bean paste yesterday. "

"Wait, I love that stuff! You know how to make that?" Shikamaru perks up, straightening slightly from his signature slouch.

"It's not too difficult." Paying for the fruit, she hefts the crate under one arm and starts off towards another stall. "And I like making sweets."

"Did your mom teach you?"

"No. Kaa-san….wasn't at home a lot."

Shikamaru pauses, then pales slightly, then rapidly shifts gears. "How much more stuff do you need to buy?"

"We've got the fruit and the red bean, so I think I just need to grab some flour. How many people are going to be at dinner again?"

"Well it's gonna be our weekly dinner with Ino and Chouji's families, so including you….probably around ten?"

" _Ten!"_

Shikamaru shifts awkwardly for a moment. "Yeah, something like that?"

Sakura's eyes narrow. "Wait. There is no way Yoshino-san would have told you to inform me of such a big dinner _on the day of_."

"...Ino reminded me about that just now." He finally mumbles, shrinking slightly beneath her gaze.

"Of course," Sakura says, flatly, then continues onward.

"Uhm." Shikamaru finally hedges, meekly, breaking the ominous silence. "Are you mad?"

A decidedly wicked look flashes across Sakura's face. "Of course not," she chirps, sounding quite chipper. She shoves a heavy bag of rice flour into his chest. "You're going to help me make them, right?"

Shikamaru can only nod.

"I mean, your job is going to be quite simple," Sakura assures as she drags the poor boy to her house. "You don't really need to know how to cook at all."

"I don't?" He looks at her warily.

"As if I'd let you near the stove your first time in the kitchen." She lightly nudges him with her shoulder as they arrive at her front porch. "Welcome to my home."

"It's cozy." Shikamaru follows her into the kitchen. "And bright. I like it."

The words sound nostalgic, somehow, and Sakura's breath catches in realization, because he's the first person to enter this house with her in so long, the first person she's invited over since….months. She stares at his back for a moment.

"Thank you."

He doesn't respond, just dumps the sack of flour onto the counter and turns, an easy smirk slipping onto his face. "So what's my job?"

"I'll take care of the bean paste." She makes towards the sink and pulls out the bowl of red beans she had left soaking overnight and a strainer. It was a big batch of beans-hopefully it would be enough.

"You," she drawls, pointing at him with the strainer, "are going to help me whip up the mochi."

He groans, but gets to work.

Smirking to herself, Sakura strains and mashes up the red beans, then heats up the paste in a pot and stirs in sugar. Taking the runny rice flour mixture from Shikamaru, she steams the batter while setting the boy back to work cleaning the strawberries, then rummages around the cupboards for a nice box to put the confections in. Container found, Sakura dusts the finished mochi with flour and the two begin assembling the desserts together: spreading a thin layer of bean paste around each strawberry, then wrapping the whole thing in a mochi skin. It is late afternoon by the time they finish.

"Do you think we have enough?" Sakura eyes the cloth-wrapped box of desserts doubtfully.

"Definitely. We made like thirty!"

"Thirty-two," Sakura corrects, dumping the used bowls into the sink and turning on the faucet. "Should we leave soon?" The sun is still high in the sky, but it is summer. The days are long.

"Dinners probably in about an hour, so we can start walking in a bit." He splays his arms out beside the daifuku container, groaning in pain. "Let's take a break first. My arms are falling off." His head hits the table with a hollow thunk.

She lets him rest as she washes the kitchenware and wipes the counter of any leftover flour, then pokes him roughly between the shoulder blades. He jumps up with a yelp.

"Oi! What was that for?"

"Time to go, you lazy bum. I gave you enough of a break."

He grumbles at her but obeys. "...Do I need to grab the box?" Still contrite about his lapse in memory, it seems. She takes pity on him.

"It's fine, I got it." She grabs the treats, then leads the way to the door. "Are you sure I don't need to get dressed?"

"Yeah, you're totally good, woman."

"Girl! Do I have any flour on me?"

"No."

"Sugar?"

"No."

"...Bean paste?"

" _No._ "

"...Okay. If you're sure-"

"You look _fine!_ "

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Oh, okay."

"Troublesome girl."

"...Thanks."

"...No prob. You ready?"

"Aa."

* * *

Until next time!

Some responses to reviewer comments/questions:

xXWinterRoseXx: Thank you! I hope the dinner turns out well :O (Also, let's see how Itachi's going to navigate those possible Sakura-Sasuke interactions :P) And thank you for the comment feedback!

Dango Town: Awwww thank you! I am such a nerd with all this chakra-theory stuff and I am SO HAPPY you feel the same! You made my...past 6 months, or however long it's been since I last updated. (Which is too long ago. Sorry D:) Chapter 8 is likely going to be another theory-heavy chapter ;P

Allie: I hope that "I hope to read about you soon" meant something like "make a profile page" because I saw your comment back in March and so I made one! (Incidentally, I was planning on updating in March before I got sidetracked.) Kakashi will be coming soon~ and no worries about grammar/spelling :)

Sasusakui: I've got the outline of the whole (very, very long) story planned out and I do not plan on dropping it any time soon!

All of your reviews made me incredibly happy! I think I'm going to keep a review-reply section here from now on. Thank you for all the motivation!


	7. Chapter 7

Just a dinner. I wrote this in many sittings and kept on forgetting what I was planning to do so I hope this didn't come out too patchy or disjointed haha...(like this sentence...)

Also, sorry I keep updating so slowly...I keep on getting ideas for scenes like 10 chapters down the road, and then forgetting to write out the one I'm supposed to be working on...

Once again, thank you to everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed/read this story! You make writing worthwhile :)

(Reviewer replies at the end. I'm glad people are liking the shikasaku friendship, and the chakra/genjutsu theory comments made my month! You guys have written me the nicest reviews, thank you! :))

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

The Nara residence is dark and warm, all smoky wood and bamboo fencing and miles and miles of leafy trees. The late afternoon sun lends the area a peaceful glow, and the air is laden with the soft music of birds and forest animals. The buildings themselves designed in a simple cluster of three or four interconnected dwellings: sweeping porches wrap around spacious rooms walled with shoji-style doors, no doubt hiding an assortment of traditional furniture and plush tatami matting within.

Hopping up onto the veranda of the largest building, Shikamaru slips out of his sandals and slides open the main door.

"Taidama," he calls, padding into the foyer and pulling a slightly-apprehensive Sakura along with him.

"Okaeri!" A voice returns from within. A moment later another door slides open down the passageway and Yoshino-san bustles out amidst a warm wave of light and chatter. "Where have you been all afternoon?! I was almost worried about you!" She chuckles and wipes her hands on a small towel tucked in her apron. "Well, you're are just about right on time. Sakura-chan should be here soon-oh hello!"

"Konbanwa, Yoshino-san."

"I should have guessed Shika-kun was with you! Was the lazy brat causing trouble?"

"No, Yoshino-san. We made some strawberry daifuku."

"Oh you shouldn't have! There was no need at all-you're such a sweet dear," she pulls the poor girl into an impromptu hug. "Thank you so much-wait." She pauses. "We?"

"Yes, Shikamaru helped."

"No. Way." The woman gawks a little and spins around. "You did _work_?!"

Shikamaru sighs. "Just 'cause we were running late and all, and-"

" _You_ did work?!"

"-it was only a little, okay, and just this once. Geez woman, it's not that big of a deal." He rubs the back of his head.

"Not a big deal? Not a _big DEAL_?! Oh my Kami, Sakura-chan, how did you-he never-please, tell me your method!"

"Ah, I don't know, really-I guess I just asked nicely?" She crosses her fingers behind her back. 'And a little bit of guilt-tripping, maybe,' she concedes inside her head. "We were a bit tight on time…"

For a moment, the woman just blinks, gaze flitting between Sakura and Shikamaru-who is scowling at the ground, hand in his pockets. An enigmatic look crosses her face.

"Oh." She grins. "Alright then. Well, Sakura-chan, let me carry that box for you, it looks heavy-"

"Wait, Okaa-san, what do you mean 'alright then,' what's that supposed to-"

"-and just follow me right this way, dear, the others are in the back." Draping a warm hand around Sakura's shoulders, the woman sweeps Sakura down the hallway with a breezy, "Come along, Shika-kun! Or we'll eat without you!"

Shikamaru scowls harder.

Walking through the doorway Yoshino-san had appeared from earlier, Sakura bumps straight into a young blonde girl carrying a basket of raw greens. Sakura recognizes her from the Academy.

"Ino-chan! Are you helping to set the table?" Yoshino-san smiles affectionately down at the girl.

"Of course! Almost done." The girl grins, and turns to Sakura. "Hello! You're Sakura, right?"

Sakura bows lightly. "Nice to meet you."

"I believe you girls are in the same class at the Academy! Ino-chan, would you mind leading Sakura-chan to the dining room while I go put this in the kitchen?" She gestures to the box of daifuku in her arms. "I can take care of the rest of the food, you guys just have fun!" With a cheerful wave, the woman disappears through yet another doorway.

Sakura can only blink as Ino-san unceremoniously grabs her arm and begins to tug her towards the next room and the boisterous laughter emanating from inside it. "Come on Sakura, dinner's almost ready and I'm hungry!"

"O-oh. Okay." The girl's grip is strong.

"Oi, wait up!"

The girls turn. Shikamaru slinks into the room behind them, glower still firmly pasted on.

"Shikamaru! What took you so long? Everyone's been waiting for you, you baka!" Stomping back to the poor boy (and dragging Sakura along), Ino gives his forehead a forceful rap.

"Owww! Cool it, woman!" He cradles his cranium with a long-suffering groan, shambling forward a few more steps.

"Suck it up, you lazy bum." Ino sticks her tongue out at him.

"Yeah, whatever. Sakura, this is the friend I told you about earlier." He rolls his eyes. "Ino."

Sakura nods. "We just met." She figured this Ino was likely the same girl who had waylaid Shikamaru earlier after class. "Thanks for reminding him to tell me about dinner today, Ino."

"Of course! I figured the idiot would have forgotten." Ino grins and flips her hair. "Now let's go!" And then she slides the shoji-screen open and pushes Sakura forward.

It is disorienting, stumbling upright and flipping her hair back from her face only to be met with five pairs of eyes. They are sitting around a low table laden with a variety of raw meats and vegetables, the echo of snuffed-out laughter hanging in the air, half-empty sake cups suspended between calculating fingers. Only the steady sound of crunching peanuts crackles through the room.

"Well, hello! You must be Sakura." A man with long, blond locks and turquoise-aquamarine eyes breaks the silence. He offers her a smile, and the spiky-haired man beside him blinks, scars pulling as heavy lashes brush tanned cheeks.

Sakura releases a muted sigh of relief. The darker man's stare had been heavy with some unreadable sentiment, thick with an indecipherable test. She wonders if she passed.

Straightening, Sakura shakes off the thought and turns toward the sunny-haired man. "Hai. A pleasure to meet you…"

"Yamanaka Inoichi, and this is my wife Mai." He gestures to the willowy, brown-haired woman to his left. Her bun is tied with a colorful rope of red.

"Yamanaka-sama." Sakura bows.

"Oh no no, no need for formalities! First names will do-that's what all the kids go by, right Shikamaru?"

"Aa, Inoichi-san." Her friend sinks into a half-hearted bow. "Mai-san. Chouza-san. Himeko-san." He slouches towards the table and all but collapses next to the dark-haired man. "Otou-san."

His father rolls his eyes. "Same as ever, eh. Troublesome kid."

"'Tou-san, 'Kaa-san, I brought the veggies!" Ino bounds up to the table and places her basket down. "Shikamaru didn't help at all, as always."

"Shut up, Ino."

The adults chuckle. "Want some peanuts, Sakura?" The man has long, flaming red hair and soft purple marks curling over his cheeks. He plops another handful into his mouth. "Akimichi Chouza, by the way."

"And call me Himeko!" The woman grins at her beneath short brown bangs, eyes highlighted by red eyeshadow. "My, you are awfully thin. Do you eat enough? Please, have some peanuts-or pickled cabbage?"

"Thank you Himeko-san, Chouza-san," Sakura bows again. "Don't worry, I do eat enough-"

"You can have some of my chips if you want." A fluffy brown head pokes out from behind the table and smiles hesitantly at her. Sakura blinks in surprise.

Himeko also looks a bit surprised. She ruffles the boy's hair. "This is our son Chouji."

"Oh, nice to meet you, Chouji."

His smile widens a bit, and he holds out a bag towards her. She carefully takes a chip. "Thank you," she says as the boy disappears back behind his mother.

She bites into the chip, secretly delighting in the crisp _snap_ and tangy barbeque flavor. It has been a while since she last had the luxury to buy snacks like these.

"So, Sakura, was it?" Shikamaru's father regards her with an unreadable eye.

Sakura flushes-she has forgotten to greet him in the midst of all the commotion. "H-hai, Haruno Sakura. Nara-sama." She dips her head towards the floor again, back ramrod straight.

"Wait, Haruno?" Ino jumps up from her seat excitedly, eyes bright with dawning recognition. "I remember that name! 'Tou-san told me all about it recently! So it was _your_ dad who-?"

"Ino!" Inoichi's rebuke is sharp, and startles the girl into silence. Her mother puts a comforting hand on her head. "Now's not a polite time to talk about these things, Ino-chan," the woman soothes. "Dinner's about to start."

And indeed, Yoshino-san chooses this moment to burst through the door, arms bristling with an assortment of more raw meats and greens. "Here we are! Anyone hungry?"

The table bursts into a flurry of activity.

"I think this is everything-Shikaku, you got out the sauces? Oh no of course you wouldn't-"

"No problem, I have them right here-"

"-thank you Mai-"

"Let me grab the pork from you-"

"-great, just put them on the corner there, Himeko, I can take care of the veggies-"

"Do you have the beef?"

"-it's with the pork-"

"Okay, then let's turn on the grills-"

"I'll slide open the shoji-screens-"

"-great! Let's get started!" With a cheerful grin, Yoshino sets down a last plate of sliced eggplant and winks at Sakura. "I hope you like yakiniku-Chouza loves this stuff, so we have it quite often."

"This will be a treat," Sakura assures her. "It's been a while since I last had yakiniku."

The Naras turn out to have a grand total of four grills set up, which allows the Akimichi mother and son to claim one for themselves, while Chouza and Inoichi take another. Ino happily agrees to share with her mother and Yoshino, chirping that she had just started a new diet, anyway. No red meat, apparently.

Which leaves Sakura to the last grill with Shikamaru….and his father.

Nice.

'Well, there is no turning back now,' Sakura surmises, picking up a pair of long, cooking chopsticks. Chatter slowly picks up again on the other end of the table, and she begins to delicately lay slices of raw beef and pork onto the grill, flipping them when necessary. Smoky aromas slowly begin wafting upwards from the grills and drifting out of the open shoji-screens into the late afternoon sunlight. Sakura keeps her eyes focused on her task. Perhaps, if she stays quiet and dutifully shoulders all of the labor involved in the meal, the man across from her will tone down his creepy stare a few notches. Who knows, she might even get to enjoy the food a little.

"Nara-sama, Shikamaru." She nods, serving each of them a couple slices of perfectly barbequed meat.

"Oh I'm so sorry, Sakura-chan!" Yoshino turns to her, chopsticks in hand, face a mask of guilt. "My husband and son are both lazy mules-and stubborn, too-I can't believe I forgot and stuck you with them! Here, why don't we switch places-"

"It's no problem, Yoshino-san." Sakura lays a soothing hand on the older woman's arm, even as self-pitying thoughts rattle around inside her head. Moving seats now will be dreadfully impolite, and Sakura is in no hurry to feel The Stare turn into The Glare.

"Nonsense! We can't have you doing all the work-and at the first dinner, too!"

"No, really," Sakura shakes her head, a smile ghosting across her lips for the first time that evening. "It's fine. I enjoy grilling, it's no trouble at all." As awkward and unfamiliar this dinner has been so far, warmth still trickles down her spine at the thought of being invited over again-or, Kami forbid, being invited over regularly.

"Well, alright then, if you're sure." With a warm smile, Yoshino hands Sakura a plate of raw seafood and leans down in one fluid motion. "My husband has quite a taste for squid." She whispers, then turns away with a wink. Sakura begins placing more items onto the grill.

"So." The man's voice low and smoky, almost gravelly. The scar on his forehead stretches. "How did you guys meet?" His eyes flicker briefly to his son, who is lazily chewing on a mushroom with his eyes closed. Typical.

"A classmate of ours and I were having….a misunderstanding, and Shikamaru helped us sort it out."

"Oh?" He raises an eyebrow. "I never knew Shikamaru was of the 'helpful' variety…."

"Don't worry Otou-san, I'm not. It was Ami again." Shikamaru rolls his eyes.

"Oh no, it was that girl?" Yoshino tunes in to the conversation, face darkening with understanding. "I mean, her family's wonderful, of course," she adds in hastily. "She's a nice girl! Just a bit….excitable. I hope she wasn't bothering you?"

The look in her eyes is so warm and worried that Sakura inadvertently bites her lip, a strange pang in her chest.

"No, Yoshino-san, of course not," Sakura reassures, thinking fast. Dinner rule number three: never speak negatively about anyone, especially to an adult. Almost as important as chewing with a closed mouth (number two) and knowing how to use chopsticks (one). "We were both just confused. Over-"

"Ami was just being a brat again," Shikamaru sighs, cutting in. He picks up another grilled mushroom. "Bullying people she's jealous of with her lackeys 'cause she's got nothing better to do." He shoves the morsel into his mouth. "Or can do," he mumbles around the mouthful of food, rolling his eyes again.

"Oh dear," Yoshino sighs. "I'm so sorry, Sakura-chan. She can be a little…."

"Well _I_ am not too fond of that girl myself," interjects Himeko from the other end of the table, chopsticks stabbing at the cooking meat on her grill with perhaps a bit more force than necessary. "She's come after Chouji before, too." She places a hand on the boy's shoulder protectively, causing him to blush and cast his gaze down towards his protein-filled bowl.

"Yeah I found her yelling at him that time when we were supposed to meet up at the soba shop! I chased her away though, don't worry." Ino beams at the older woman, who grins back and combs a hand through the girl's blond locks in thanks. "She tried going after me once too," the girl continues with a scoff. "As if she had a chance." With a flip of her short hair, she returns her attention to her salad, burrowing into her mother's side.

Shikamaru turns back to Sakura with a sigh. "She's never gotten along with us-got it from her parents, most likely. Clan politics. It's pretty complicated, apparently." He casts a look at his father, who nods noncommittally.

"I see." Sakura nods. Perhaps she can ask Shikamaru later. She places a few more slices of meat and eggplant on the grill and checks the heat. "Why is she interested in me, then? I am clanless." The one thing that did not change.

"Don't be stupid." Shikamaru jabs her in the side with his elbow. "It's 'cause you're smart. And well-liked by the teachers." Watching her eyebrows rise higher and higher in bemusement, Shikamaru breaks off with a cough, mumbling something into his fist and rubbing the back of his head. He sighs. "You're just an all-around better student then she is, alright, and she's jealous."

Yoshino starts laughing. "My, I never thought I'd see the day when Shika-kun actually pays someone a compliment!" She pulls Sakura into an unexpected hug. "You're also as cute as a button! No wonder the poor girl is a bit bitter, ne?" The woman is surprisingly playful.

Once again, warmth spreads across Sakura's chest and down her spine at the show of affection. Her temple and eyelids almost feel hot, too, but she has no time to dwell on it.

"So you're doing well at the Academy?" The scar stretches again.

"Oh, well, I wouldn't say that. I'm doing alright, I guess."

"You like it?"

Sakura blinks. "Well, I'm better at theory than in practice, so I'm trying to do some training on my physical abilities. Hopefully I will be able to catch up a bit in those aspects…"

"But do you like it?" The man's gaze is once again heavy with something she can't decipher and his face is neutral, body still.

"I-I mean, yes, of course-yes. I….need to get stronger." Her throat dries. Swallow. "So that I-"

She stops. 'So that I can _protect_ ' she wants to say. But protect….who?

He is still staring at her with the same look. Waiting….for what?

"So that I-"

"Oi, how come you haven't eaten anything yet?" A heaping chopstick-ful of beef appears on her plate. "Don't just talk and cook, woman." Shikamaru rolls his eyes at her.

Yoshino's head whips around at that declaration, eyes wide, and immediately begins to fuss. "Oh dear, you haven't eaten yet? How come? That simply won't do, Sakura-chan! Here, have some pork-and you must try some of these mushrooms-"

"A-ah, thank you Yoshino-san, that's-"

"-oh, and the squid is delicious too-and don't forget the sauce, dear-have you two been snatching up everything?" She gives father and son each a reproving glare. "Stop stuffing yourselves so quickly and give the poor girl a break!" She plucks a few more slices of meat off the grill. "Here, dear, have some more beef. Don't talk-just eat! You are much too thin!"

Obediently, Sakura ducks her head and beings to quietly consume her food as the older woman returns to berating her husband and son again. She catches Shikamaru's gaze out of the corner of her eye and nods discreetly in thanks. He really saved her back there. The boy gives her a slight smirk before closing his eyes in lazy protest against his mother.

"You're better at theory, you said?"

Looking up, Sakura is met with Inoichi's surprisingly intense gaze. She nods, mouth full of squid, and chews hastily.

"That's interesting. I remember most kids didn't like theory back when I was in the Academy-centuries ago," the blond-haired man laughs. "Ino doesn't like it much either, do you Ino?"

The girl's face scrunches up in distaste. "It's the worst! Soooooo boring," she sighs, and drops her head heavily into her palm.

"Ino. You should pay more attention," her father admonishes sternly. "Theory is actually very important to your later development as a shinobi-possibly the most important class they teach at the Academy, actually." The man offers Sakura a smile. "Good for you, for following along. I assume you're doing quite well, too?"

"Yeah, she's at the top of the class for anything theory-related," Shikamaru slips in, casually. "Iruka's always calling her out for perfect test scores."

"That's Iruka- _sensei_ to you, Shikamaru," Yoshino admonishes. "But that's amazing, Sakura-chan!"

"It's just on theory," Sakura quickly puts in, blushing. "I'm awful at anything practical."

"Well I won't disagree with that," Shikamaru smirks. Grabbing the cooking chopsticks, he plops the last few pieces of raw meat left onto the grill. "Although, it seems like you're pretty good at chakra control, too." Turning towards the adults, he shrugs offhandedly. "We started chakra meditation today and I couldn't feel a thing, but she did." He blinks, as if recalling something. "Actually-"

"Wait you felt something?!" Ino leans over the table, nearly upsetting a her plate as she does so. "How? I couldn't see a thing either! What's it feel like?! Are you _sure_ you did it right?"

"U-Uh, well," Sakura stutters a bit, too busy being mentally relieved at the interruption to provide an adequate response. She does _not_ want anyone else to know about the blackout incident. Catching sight of Shikamaru opening his mouth again, she hastily stomps on his foot beneath the table as a preventative tactic, ignoring his wince and narrowing eyes.

"...wouldn't be surprised," Inoichi is saying. "Sakura's chakra flows much more smoothly than I've seen in most kids your age. Actually, in any kids your age. How _is_ it so controlled?"

Well, no way to avoid a question like that. Meeting his inquisitive gaze embarrassedly, Sakura shrugs in what she hopes can pass as a casual manner. "Just some chakra readings I found at the library," she hedges, "to fill up the time. Nothing else to do lately." She gives an uneasy laugh.

The adults surprisingly seem to accept that answer. A distinctively awkward air seems to settle over the table, and Sakura realizes that her hosts are trying to be delicate-tiptoeing around the issue of her parents. How convenient. She quickly begins to stuff a mushroom into her mouth-to ward off any more potential questions that may spring into their heads-until a thought ironically pops into _hers_.

"Wait, Inoichi-san, you can see my chakra? How?"

"Not so much see as feel," the blond man chuckles as the rest of the table relaxes. "You'd need a Hyuuga to see chakra in such fine detail, but yes I can feel the general outline of your chakra flow. You guys will learn how to do that too when you get older!" He ruffles Ino's hair to her vocal displeasure, and laughter echoes down the table.

Sakura chuckles along, mind whirring with worry. It seems that sensing chakra is supposed to be painless-Inoichi certainly didn't exhibit any signs of discomfort when he felt her chakra. So blacking out is probably not normal….but then what had happened? Is something wrong with her?

Something nudges her foot. Looking up, she meets Shikamaru's reassuring gaze. _'We'll figure it out,'_ it says. _'Don't worry.'_ Sakura isn't sure how much he's figured out yet with his genius intellect, but somehow, she feels herself relaxing anyway. Later, in the darkness of her room, she might wonder why.

"Wow, I'm stuffed!" Chouza sets down his chopsticks with a satisfied sigh and downs the rest of his sake. "Amazing food as always, Yoshino!"

"Oh, it was nothing!" The woman waves her hand furiously. "I didn't even cook anything! Sorry we were so lazy this time around!"

"Not at all! Remember that time I tried cooking and Mai ended up having to run out for last-minute takeout?" Inoichi's comment prompts another round of laughter from the adults.

"Why don't you men go out to the veranda for a bit while we take care of the dishes?" Standing up, Yoshino begins to clear the table. "You guys are useless in the kitchen anyway, let the women do the work here!" She grins.

"Alright," Inoichi concedes with a good-natured laugh. "Definitely can't argue with that! Thank you then, dear ladies!"

"'Kaa-san! Can we go outside then? It's still bright!"

"Sure, Ino-chan-but stay in the yard, okay? And come back in soon! The sun's about to set and there's still dessert!"

"Okay 'Kaa-san! Let's go Chouji, Sakura! Come on, Shika-get off your lazy butt!"

"Nooo," Shikamaru groans. "Stop. I'm not going." He collapses stubbornly to the veranda floorboards and sprawls out onto his side.

"Shikaaa! Come _on_ ," Ino whines.

"Nooooo."

" _Ugh_ , whatever! Sakura, wanna come?"

"Ah, no, it's alright. Thank you for the offer though."

Ino blinks. "Are you sure? It'll be fun!"

"It's fine. I probably shouldn't," Sakura offers the other girl a wan smile. "You guys go ahead!"

"Well, okay, if you're sure." The blonde shrugs. "Let's go Chouji!" Grabbing her friend by the wrist, she begins to excitedly tug him off the veranda and into the backyard. Sakura watches them go, and listens to the chirping of the cicadas.

In the background, the sound of the women's chatter fades into the kitchen-("You must tell me more about that market trip you made the other day, Himeko! You saw _Mirai's_ husband, you said?")-and the scent of tobacco begins to waft slowly up into the air.

As a guest, it would have been impolite to leave the adults during her first visit here.

"Did you want to go with them?" The smoky rumble drifts from behind her, softly. Still regarding her with those unreadable eyes, the man leans lightly against the shoji-screen frame, one hand casually shoved into his pocket, the other cradling a pipe.

Sakura stiffens. "No, it's alright," she murmurs. "It would be rude of me-"

"That's not what I mean." The man takes a long drag of tobacco, and closes his eyes. Tilts his head back, slowly lets out the smoke. He sighs. "This isn't a test to see if you've mastered every rule in the etiquette book. Stop thinking about what we want, what society wants, for a second."

He looks at her again. Somehow, in the absence of the other adults, his gaze no longer seems so intimidating, but steady. Sad. Safe.

"What do _you_ want?"

Sakura stills, a lump forming in her throat. This, she realizes, is a gesture of concern for her well-being. The first time someone has actually asked how she's been feeling since that day. What _she_ wants….in the wake of everything, there is simply no space left to consider her wants, her likes, herself. How can she, with so many more important issues to worry over, to get right? It's about what she needs. What she must. What she _should_.

And in the midst of that, she somehow….forgot. What does Sakura like to do? What does she want to be? _That day_ has shattered her previously idyllic life like a boulder thrown into a pond, and the little girl who once had dreams of her own….that girl is a reflection dissolved. What were those dreams? Those faded desires? Is her current dream even hers? Yes….she _likes_ training. She _wants_ to grow stronger. But why? Does she really want….to protect?

"I….don't know."

The man continues to look at her steadily, something softer entering his eyes.

"Not yet." She meets his gaze unflinchingly this time, and holds it. She knows he will understand.

Snorting softly, he takes another puff of his pipe and begins to turn away. "That's good, take your time. Kids these days never know what they want anyway." He scratches the back of his head as he wanders back towards the other two men. "In the meantime, why don't you go play shogi with Shikamaru or something?" He drawls over his shoulder, more loudly. "I think you'll like it." He boy in question immediately perks up at the mention of the game.

Blinking at the abrupt change and scrambling for her bearings, Sakura tilts her head as the present catches up with her. "What's shogi?"

"A good game. Come on, I'll teach you." Shikamaru flips onto his back and, yawning, begins the apparently laborious task of standing up.

Sakura watches him with vague amusement, mind still half in a dream. For the first time, the boy actually seems excited about something. Which makes it all the more entertaining when Yoshino chooses that moment to make apparent the fact that shogi is fated not to be this evening.

"Everyone, come inside for a moment and grab some dessert! Sakura-chan made strawberry daifuku and they look _delicious_ -Ino-chan! Chouji-kun! Dessert!"

Sakura can't help but smirk as Shikamaru completely deflates in front of her. The veranda trembles as Ino and Chouji run past them, laughing, and she gently nudges his side with her elbow.

"Next time."

The boy sighs. "Yeah, next time," and allows her to drag him back inside.

The daifuku, thankfully, did not get squished on the way here. Sakura carefully avoids eye contact with anyone as she bites into hers, hoping that the treat came out alright. She chews.

"But this is _amazing_! Absolutely divine! Sakura-chan, you must show me how you made this!" Himeko beams at her, polishing off the rest of her strawberry. The other adults are nodding and smiling at her-Chouza is already reaching for a second one.

"A-ah, of course, Himeko-san, thank you."

"Way better than the ones at the market!" Inoichi winks.

"Did you guys know she actually got my lazy Shika-kun to help her make this?" Yoshino dissolves into laughter. "Imagine him, pounding rice!"

Slouching down further, Shikamaru scowls across the table at the chuckling adults, turning up the heat for his smirking father specifically. It's such a domestic scene, it makes Sakura smile, the man's earlier words echoing through her mind.

"There's the smile I've been waiting for all night."

Looking up in surprise, Sakura meets Yoshino's soft grin. "You're so pretty when you smile, you know that, Sakura-chan?" The older woman murmurs. She gives Sakura's knee a warm squeeze beneath the table. "Don't hide it. Share it with the world!"

And the lump forms again in her throat, big and warm. So this is what it is, what she had been looking at all night. Yoshino's smile, that look in her eyes. It's family. Welcome, acceptance, trust. The prickling feeling returns behind her eyes, and she looks down, at the hand rubbing soothing circles into her elbow.

"It's alright, dear. It'll be okay."

And Sakura can only nod wordlessly, and stare at the table as the conversation flows around her, trying desperately to draw all the pieces of herself back inside. Feeling slightly more in control, she finishes the rest of her daifuku, chewing slowly until her neck stops feeling hot and her nose is no longer leaky and she can blink normally again.

"Better?" Yoshino murmurs discreetly, swiping another daifuku from the box. "Have another! Or else those men are going to eat them all-I swear Chouza's already eaten four!" The woman grins as if sharing a secret. "They're that good!"

That draws out a second smile from Sakura, which in turn makes the older woman's grin widen. "So who taught you how to cook?"

"I mostly taught myself, since both of my parents were often away." Sakura finds herself falling into an easy conversation about topics she hadn't thought about-had consciously avoided-for months. Somehow, talking suddenly feels more manageable, and she greedily drinks in the experience, the comfort of friendly small talk, even as she feels exhaustion start to creep up on her. It seems the meditation episode in the morning and the afternoon of baking had tired her out more than she thought.

Dimly, she hears the beginnings of conversation start up amongst the men on the other side of the table, a low murmur. Himeko and Mai also strike up an exchange, which she listens to with one ear.

"So how are things at the flower shop?"

"Same as ever! I just started teaching Ino how to make some of the simpler arrangements, she seems to really like it. What about your restaurant?"

"Things are going pretty well too! Yesterday we actually had a special group of customers…."

"...must have been super busy! Is Chouza still…."

 _"...work this week? Any news?"_

"...so Chouji's starting to hang around more often…teaching him the basics…"

 _"...anything from the Hokage…concern…Uchihas….situation seems…"_

Sakura loses track of her own conversation and drifts off mid-sentence.

"Sakura-chan?" Yoshino questions, noting her shift in interest

 _"...from T &I either…know anything…Uchiha...clammed up…"_

 _"...try again…bastards…yeah…"_

"Language!" Yoshino sharply raps her knuckles against the wood. "This is not appropriate conversation for the table! Take it outside." She shakes her head in exasperation.

"A-ah, sorry Yoshino, we forgot." Inoichi looks sheepish. "We can head out to the veranda again. Are you three planning to stay inside with the kids? It's starting to get dark out."

"Yeah, Chouji is getting tired anyway." Himeko stroke her sons head. The boy is nodding off at her side.

"So is Ino," Mai gestures with her chin down at the girl, who's eyelids were also starting to droop.

"And we all know Shika never had any energy to begin with," Yoshino laughs, "but speaking of which, Sakura-chan! Do you want one of us to walk to you home? It's getting late and you live on the other side of town, don't you?"

"Oh it's no problem, Yoshino-san," Sakura assures, her forcing her unease to the back of her mind for the moment. _'Uchiha?'_ Her mind whispers. _'Uchiha?'_

"The sun's just set anyway." She glances outside. "And I enjoy the walk." This time, she means it.

After a moment of consideration, the woman finally nods. "Alright, but stay on the main roads, okay, Sakura-chan?" She picks up the now-empty daifuku box and begins to rewrap it in cloth.

"'Bye, Sakura-chan! It was great to meet you," Inoichi and Chouza wave as they start to head back outside. "And dessert was delicious!"

"Close the screen behind you or you'll let mosquitos in!" Yoshino calls to their backs. She snorts and turns back to Sakura. "Let me show you to the door, dear."

"I'll do it," Shikamaru yawns unexpectedly, rubbing his eyes and getting to his feet. "I'm heading to bed anyway."

With a surprised laugh, Yoshino wraps an arm around his shoulders. "Alright, Shika-kun. My, this friendship is really a good influence on you, isn't it? You're practically lively now!"

"Shut up, 'Kaa-san."

Yoshino laughs again, and hands Sakura back her box. "Here you go, Sakura-chan. I hope you had a nice time." And then, suddenly, she engulfs Sakura in a long, firm hug, wraps the girl in that feeling of warmth and family and care again until Sakura's chest is a field of glowing embers. "It was so fun getting to know you."

"Thank you," Sakura whispers. It is enough.

And then, blinking in remembrance, she turns back towards the interior of the room and scans the table.

He's still there, lazily stuffing tobacco into his pipe. Her feet move forward a few steps without her realizing, closer. He acknowledges her with a glance out of the corner of his eye.

And she opens her mouth, so many words on her tongue suddenly, but Yoshino is there, and Shikamaru is waiting, and somehow, she wants to keep this secret, for now. So she just ducks her head slightly, and swallows.

"Thank you," she says, and grips her box tighter. "Nara-sama."

He looks at her for a long moment, then downs the rest of his sake and stands up, pipe in hand. "Shikaku," he drawls, and ruffles her hair as he heads towards the shoji-screen. "Have a safe trip home, kid."

The scar on his cheek stretches. He is smiling.

* * *

Reader-san, are you still here? If you are...wow, thank you so much for actually reading that entire ramble! Clearly, I have no idea how to keep a conversation flowing. This is my first fanfiction, so if anyone has any tips on how to, err, be a good writer, I would be extremely grateful!

Thanks everyone! And now some responses to reviewer comments/questions:

ThatOneAuthoress: Hope you still like the story and didn't find the dinner too boring! :)

Reihime: Awwww, your comment was very sweet, thank you! No worries at all-48 reviews is already a lot to me! :D I am actually beyond happy with the reactions this story has received-blown away that this story has so many favorites/follows/reviews! :)

LilyBlueBookwormQ02: Sakura is 8! Sorry for the confusion-would you mind pointing out the problematic spots? I will try to fix them! :) Also, this story is currently projected to end when Sakura is in her twenties. So Naruto will definitely show up at some point ;) I am so glad you enjoy the story so far!

Maria Stoneborn: Haha thank you! I hope this chapter didn't disappoint. Hmmm, special abilities...let's see! ;)

Jade: Let's find out! ;) (Hopefully soon...I really need improve my updating speed haha)


	8. Chapter 8

Why, hello again! Wow, I can't believe I am back already. I was feeling a bit guilty at the slow updates and...kind-of-very excited to get to some future chapters, so I thought I'd churn out something! :D

Also, a reviewer requested that I include summaries of previous chapters with each update, so I guess I will start posting some one-sentence summaries up here from now on. (Just on the most recent chapter, I think? Or the last several? Probably not _all_ of the previous ones...because that would get _really_ long...)

 _Chapter 7 summary: Sakura visits the Nara compound for dinner and meets the Ino-Shika-Cho families._

As always, thank you to everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed/read this story! You've all been so kind and supportive, I am super lucky to have you :)

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

Sakura wakes to a gentle knocking on her door. Half-believing it to be a dream, she sits up and rubs drowsily at her eyes. But no-it comes again: three steady raps, and then silence.

'Is it Shikamaru?' She wonders, stumbling out of bed. No one else had visited her house in months. Did she forget something at his place last night?

Approaching the door, she unlatches the lock and pokes her head out curiously.

Nothing.

'Huh?' She thinks, blankly. She blinks. And then staggers backward with a squeak.

"I-Itachi-senpai!"

The older boy inclines his head, all elegance and grace and poise, as if appearing suddenly out of thin air is a completely normal thing to do. "Ohayo, Sakura-san. Pardon the intrusion. May I come in?"

"Of course! Ah, I'm so sorry-where are my manners? Would you like some tea? Fruit?" Sakura babbles as she leads him inside, relocking the door behind him.

"I am fine, thank you," he murmurs silkily. "I will not stay here long. I just did not want to...bother any neighbors by staying on your porch."

"Ah, okay," says Sakura, still quite befuddled by the unexpected arrival. Well, her street _is_ pretty quiet…makes sense. "What is the matter, then?"

He is quiet for a moment, considering her. "Shisui's mission is taking longer than expected. I came to tell you he will likely not be back until next week."

"Oh." Sakura tries not to look too disappointed. She had really been looking forward to her next lesson, had studied hard for it. "Oh, that's perfectly fine. Thank you for letting me know! I hope the rest of his mission goes well."

"I will relay the message," he nods, and pauses again. "If you happen to be free, however, I do have some time today."

His inky eyes are indulgent and warm, and Sakura slowly smiles as she processes the meaning of his words. "Yes, of course!" Excitement begins to bubble in her gut. "What time works best for you?"

"How about you meet me at training ground six in half an hour?" He smirks, slightly. "So you can get ready."

"Oh!" Sakura's eyes widen as she remembers her garb: faded green pajamas covered in cartoon elephants. She probably looks like a plant. A blushing, monster plant. Meanwhile, Itachi is looking as impeccable as ever: hair neatly swept over one shoulder as usual, loose sleeves wrinkle-free.

Satisfied that he's embarrassed her enough, the older male gives her another polite nod and steps back a little. "See you soon," he says, all neutral, and then vanishes without a trace save the fluttering of the window curtains in his wake.

"Oh, curses." Sakura glares at nothing in particular as she rushes to the bathroom, patting her cheeks to cool them. How rude. Combing her hair with her fingers, she brushes her teeth and gets ready as quickly as possible, throwing on the last set of fresh clothes she has. Today is laundry day; hence the unsightly sleepwear.

A quick glance outside informs her that it is nearly _noon_ -no wonder Itachi had thought it amusing that she had still been asleep! Dinner at the Nara's had really tired her out, especially with all the thinking she had done after returning home. Sleep had been hard to find.

Well, training now and thinking later! Grabbing an apple and slipping on her sandals, she proceeds to trip out the door as quickly as possible, anticipation powering her down the street as she munches haphazardly on her breakfast.

* * *

Training ground six is deserted, as usual. In fact, Sakura has never bumped into anyone there before. It is almost enough to make one question the work ethic of Konoha shinobi. Dropping to the ground beneath her favorite oak tree, she scans the field with a sharp eye. Memories of her last meet up with Shisui are still fresh in her mind and she does _not_ want to be caught by surprise again. Itachi seems to be the more serious of the two-but, well, better safe than sorry.

Leaning back against the rough bark, Sakura takes another bite of her apple, running a hand haphazardly through her hair as she chews.

"Sakura-san."

Jumping in surprise, Sakura drops the rest of her apple. "M-my breakfast!" She glares up at the boy. "Itachi-senpai!"

"My apologies. It was not my intention to startle you," he murmurs with a smirk that says it was _completely intentional_. Sakura retracts her previous statement-he is _exactly like Shisui_. The jerks.

"Alright, so what are we doing?" Sakura grouses as Itachi silently sits down beside her. She tries not to sound too excited.

"Since Shisui has been teaching you the basics of genjutsu theory, I am going to let him introduce you to illusion casting." Itachi gives a little smile. "Instead, I want to show you a bit about detecting and dispelling genjutsu. I trust Shisui has already taught you about the three orders of genjutsu?"

"The three types of genjutsu correspond with the three main stages involved in our perception of the external world," Sakura recites. "The mind, the senses, and the world itself."

Itachi nods. "Exactly. The closer the target of the genjutsu is to the mind, the more difficult it becomes to implement the genjutsu. But the increasing proximity also makes it harder to detect and dispel the illusion." Reaching into a pouch strapped to his thigh, he pulls out two gleaming shuriken, perfectly whetted into four wickedly sharp points. "We are going to start today with genjutsu of the first order, since area-targeting genjutsu are the easiest." He carefully hands the weapons over to Sakura. "Which one is real?"

Sakura looks down at the pair of blades, one in each hand, and lifts her right palm without hesitation. "That one." The other is clearly fake-it isn't reflecting sunlight at the right angle.

The boy gives her an approving look. "Good." With a speed her eyes cannot follow, he switches the two shuriken for another pair from his pouch. "What about these?"

Sakura lifts her right hand again. It is less obvious this time, but the outline of the illusory blade quivers minutely, the razor-sharp edges intermittently becoming fuzzy.

Itachi switches the blades again. "Now?"

"This one." There is a patch of roughness on the fake blade that is at odds with the flawlessly polished surface her eyes see.

They continue this way for a while, each exercise more difficult than the last as the flaws in the illusory shuriken become increasingly small-but never impossible to spot. Sakura can't help but smile.

"Hm." Ebony orbs regard her thoughtfully, and then the boy switches the shuriken again. "Try this."

Sakura turns the two blades slowly in her hands, careful not to nick herself with the corners. This time the two blades look and feel completely identical, and even sound the same when she lightly clinks them together. 'Hmm,' she thinks, eyebrows furrowing in concentration. She is _not_ going to be licking any shuriken today, okay, so there must be another way…

 _'That one,'_ her mind whispers, and an instant later Sakura feels it too. Not with any of her senses, but with her chakra. The imitation shuriken emits a faint aura, a slight _vibration_ that isn't there when she examines the blade with her senses alone-only when she feels with her chakra can she perceive the slight humming of the genjutsu.

Sakura holds out her left hand.

Itachi's expression does not change, but it seems as if the air around him shifts slightly, then stills. He replaces the shuriken. "Again."

So Sakura chooses again. And again. Now that she has felt it, the once-difficult task becomes easy. No matter how perfect the illusory weapon is, the tell-tale trace of chakra allows Sakura to pick it out immediately every time.

"Hmm." Itachi finally pauses, and looks at her with narrowed eyes for a moment. Then he takes out two more shuriken.

'Again?' Sakura wonders. The boy seems to notice her thoughts.

"One more time." He murmurs.

"Alright." She examines the two blades. Then examines them again. This time, not even her chakra can pick out the fake blade. Neither weapon emits any trace of chakra and the two blades are identical in every other way, save for a few superficial differences-a scratch mark here, a small nick there. But nothing to signal a genjutsu.

Sakura scrutinizes both shuriken for a few more minutes, slight disappointment swirling in her gut. This time, she is really stumped.

"I don't know," she admits, handing the pair of blades back to Itachi. She tries not to frown. "They both seem real to me."

Carefully stowing the weapons back inside his pouch, the boy considers her for a moment with an unreadable expression. Then, he smirks at her. "They were both real."

Sakura sputters, and tries really hard to school her face into an expression that does not make it obvious that she _really_ wants to smack him. She does not succeed. "What was that for, then?!"

"Sorry, Sakura-san. I just had to confirm that luck had not been a factor in any of your previous attempts." The boy at least has the grace to look a bit contrite, although amusement still dances in his gaze.

But his face quickly becomes serious. "The last few illusions I showed you were some of my highest caliber genjutsus. And yet you still maintained a one hundred percent success rate." His mouth twists slightly downwards. "Moreover, you were able to detect the fake weapon instantly. I do not believe even Shisui could have done it so quickly, every time."

Sakura listens quietly, simultaneously burning and frozen. Based on what Itachi is saying...she's _good_. In this one area of the shinobi arts, she...has potential. She involuntarily clenches her fists.

"While it is trainable to an extent, the ability to detect genjutsu is largely dependent upon one's natural affinity to the aura of a genjutsu's chakra. Clearly, you are already exceptionally sensitive to these chakra ambiences." With a flick of his wrist, a perfectly formed shuriken materializes in his hand. A genjutsu. "So instead, we are going to work on honing your instincts-instilling in you the inclination to always be on the lookout for illusions, to be able to instantaneously detect a genjutsu even when you have not been forewarned of its existence." He hands her the shuriken. "But first," he smirks, "I am going to show you the basics of dispelling genjutsu."

Fingers tightening on the illusory shuriken, Sakura nods. "I am ready."

And Itachi begins.

"At its most basic, you can think of a genjutsu as a balloon wrapped around the target of the illusion. When the target is your mind, the 'balloon' is around your mind, and the genjutsu plays on the inner surface of the 'balloon.' When the target is the senses, the 'balloon' is around your body. In this case, the 'balloon' is around the space that shuriken seems to be occupying, and the illusion is displayed on its outer surface to reach your senses." Motioning towards her illusory weapon, he continues: "Every balloon contains points of weakness: patches where the material is stretched thin, minuscule fault lines. A genjutsu is equally fragile. Open up a single tear, and the entire illusion will unravel. Unlike with a balloon, however, you cannot rupture a genjutsu anywhere you would like; you must locate one of its weak spots with your chakra." He leans back. "Try it with the shuriken."

Closing her eyes, Sakura concentrates. Feeling the familiar vibration of the genjutsu's aura, she dives deeper into the illusion, fingers tingling as the details of the genjutsu's surface begin to emerge like the features of a rapidly approaching terrain. She spreads her chakra out more, sweat starting to run down her nose. Closer, closer, _closer_ …and then the shuriken lights up, in her mind's eye, an intricate web of crisscrossing cracks, a minefield of fault lines.

"You see them."

"Yeah," Sakura gasps, eyes still closed as she actually sees the genjutsu for the first time.

"Now break it."

So she does. A quick strike of her chakra into one of those tiny cracks, like a sharp blow from a chisel-she opens her eyes just in time to watch the illusion seemingly rip apart, and fade into nothingness.

"Good." Itachi nods approvingly. "As you can probably see already, the process of dispelling genjutsu takes some time to get used to, regardless of your ability to detect them. Let's try it again. Faster."

He drills her until she is tearing through the illusory shuriken instantaneously, decreasing the number of weak spots present in the illusion each time.

Then, he repeats the exercise, this time with multiple layers of genjutsu instead of one. Now, merely breaking through one layer of genjutsu does nothing to the illusion, since a replacement layer merely swells up beneath it. To make the exercise even more difficult, each layer sports different locations for its fault lines, so Sakura has to regard each layer as a completely new illusion. Sweat courses down her cheeks in slow streams as she concentrates.

"Alright. That is enough."

The final shuriken vanishes. Leaning back on an elbow, Sakura wipes the sweat off her face and inhales several deep lungfuls of air.

"You are learning quickly."

"The last few were very difficult," Sakura pants.

"Well the last few were very high caliber genjutsu," Itachi responds. "They were multilayered and each layer only sported one flaw."

"It...still _had_ a flaw…"

"Every genjutsu possesses at least one flaw. In the future you will learn why that is, and how to hide it." Pulling out a water bottle, he offers it to her. "For now, though, you should rest."

Taking the water gratefully, she tilts back her head-and freezes. The _sky_...

Quickly, she glances down at the grass beneath her palms...at the tree behind her back...at the water bottle in his hands.

The field...is _vibrating_ …

With a gasp, she whips back around to face Itachi at the same time that the field wavers, then melts away before her eyes.

Itachi smirks. "Welcome back."

Everything is the same. The grass, the trees, the wind, his infuriatingly perfect hair-he's even holding a water bottle out towards her.

"You put me in a genjutsu!"

He gives an elegant shrug of his shoulders. "I told you we were also going to work on detecting unanticipated genjutsu. You should train to be more aware of your surroundings. It took you a while."

"Since when?" She demands. "When did you-?"

"The same moment I created that first shuriken." He smirks again, and she remembers-a twitch of the wrist, a flick. "As you can see, in most cases-on the battlefield, at least-a genjutsu is actually most dangerous to the practiced shinobi _before_ detection. Unless the genjutsu caster is extremely advanced, dispelling a genjutsu is comparatively straightforward. But if you do not detect the illusion quickly enough, you might find a kunai through your chest before the chance to dispel it even arises."

He sets the water bottle down by her knee and glances at the sun. "But enough of that for now." It is getting into late afternoon. "I meant it when I said we have already finished a sufficient amount of material for today."

Reaching into a bag Sakura only just noticed, he procures two wrapped bento boxes, one in black cloth and one in green. "Are you hungry?"

Sakura's stomach chooses that moment to emit a loud, long, ferocious grumble. Blushing all the way to the tips of her ears, she chuckles awkwardly. "Uh, yeah." No use lying now-plus, the only thing she's eaten all day is-half-an apple.

He hands her the box wrapped in green. "My mother gave me two this morning." He rolls his eyes with something resembling fond exasperation. "I happened to mention that I was going to meet a friend today."

Something warm and vaguely painful trickles through Sakura's chest at those words-a feeling she's been feeling quite often recently. She lets out a breath and carefully unwraps the neatly tied cloth, pulls off the wooden lid.

Her jaw drops.

"Wha-" Little flower-shaped vegetables and star-shaped fruit, sausages cut up to look like octopi, onigiri molded to look like _bunnies_. Sakura's heart melts a little. "Wha-?"

"Oh." Itachi actually looks a bit sheepish. "I forgot that I mentioned you were female. I was slightly suspicious when my mother vehemently insisted the green box be yours, but I did not realize that my earlier disclosure would have such...consequences." He holds out his own bento. "Would you like to trade?"

"No, no it's fine!" Sakura blurts out hastily. "Actually, it's...quite adorable." She blushes with a tiny grin.

"Alright." The boy concedes with an answering smile.

The first bite is heavenly. The vegetables are perfectly pickled, the rice soft and chewy. Sakura's eyes involuntarily slip closed. The taste of something crafted with care and thought...mouth watering from the delicious food, Sakura quickly inhales her meal, then sets her chopsticks down with a satisfied sigh.

"Okay."

Itachi dips his head in her direction and begins to pack up his own empty box. "Okay."

"Thank you for the meal." She watches as Itachi returns the two boxes to his pack.

"It was no problem."

But as he turns back towards her, his gaze becomes inexplicably intense. Sakura swallows slightly, confused and a bit apprehensive. "So, what now?"

"So," he says, in measured, even tones, "Sasuke told me yesterday that a classmate fainted during a chakra meditation exercise."

Oh. Realization dawns in her, sudden and warm. _Oh._

She nods, slowly. "Yeah."

His face grows serious. "Tell me about the blackout."

So she does.

"You saw other students' chakra and it hurt?" Itachi looks vaguely concerned, which in turn makes Sakura concerned-the boy's face is usually so neutral.

"Well, it wasn't just due to the _chakra_ ," Sakura quickly amends. "It was _really_ bright-like staring into the sun, if the sun had crashed into the Academy field. It was everywhere."

"You mean you saw light from all around? Even the trees?" Itachi's eyes sharpen.

"Yeah, and the grass, and everything. The entire field was aglow. I think I even saw a squirrel, and bugs, like raindrops dotting every surface. I don't know," Sakura falters helplessly, motioning with her arms. "I don't know how to describe it, really."

Itachi is quiet, simply gazing at her with that awful intensity. Sakura tries to quell the slight panic that is starting to brew in her gut. At least he no longer looks _concerned_.

"Um…"

"Can you try it again?" He asks, gently.

Sakura blinks, and involuntarily recoils. "Oh. I-I don't know. It really hurt. I mean. I mean sure." She pauses, inhales. "Alright. Alright, sure."

"Just focus on me, okay? Don't reach any farther. Just me." He shifts closer, until his knees are brushing hers, and lets his fingers lightly rest on her leg. "You'll be okay."

"Okay." She lets out a deep breath, runs a hand through her bangs, closes her eyes. "Okay."

Slowly delving into her chakra, she concentrates on relaxing the tightly spinning mass, softening the tense coils. Then, mustering up her courage, she begins to shift her senses outwards, hesitantly feeling and absorbing.

Waiting, waiting... _there_. Itachi's chakra, muted and cool, a steady, calm fire radiating light towards her, in the darkness. Familiar, like an old friend. Sakura slowly relaxes. Allows her chakra to slowly unfurl and bask in the the comfort of this friendly flame, like a sunflower beneath the sun.

'This...feels nice.' Sakura decides, wonderingly. Maybe her last experience was a fluke-perhaps the newness of the experience had overwhelmed her.

And then the soft glow of a butterfly flutters by her cheek, and her concentration wavers.

Light- _blinding light_ -the grass-the trees-every leaf comes into focus-a blazing glare-every bird-every worm-with a choked gasp, Sakura's eyes spring open.

"Are you alright?" Dark eyes bore into hers, worry evident in their gaze. Sakura pants mutely. Sweat trickles down her back.

"Sakura-san?"

She screws her eyes shut again, inhaling lungful after lungful of air.

"Sakura."

"Even the air was glowing." She finally forces out in a whisper. "Even the air was glowing." Strong hands grip her shoulders. _"Itachi."_

"It's alright. Just breathe. I got you."

"O-okay." She manages, between pants. "Okay."

After what feels like forever, her breaths finally even out a little. Itachi lets go of her shoulders, and motions for her to lean back against the tree trunk. "Did you feel my chakra?"

"Yeah," Sakura smiles, faintly. "It was warm."

Itachi nods. "I have a theory."

"You know what's wrong with me?" She bites her lip. _'Is it curable?'_ She wants to ask. _'Can you fix me?'_

To her surprise and relief, Itachi breaks into a small smile himself. "Nothing's wrong with you. If I am correct, you are simply hyper-sensitive to chakra." He looks thoughtful. "By which I mean you are _extremely_ sensitive. I was cloaking my chakra, and you still felt it."

"Oh." Sakura lets out a sigh, feeling some of the tension in her shoulders slowly unwind. "So it's pretty normal?"

Itachi shakes his head. "No. In fact, I've never encountered this before. But it does not seem to be anything harmful. It probably explains why detecting the presence of genjutsu comes so easily to you. Does this ever happen unexpectedly, like when you are not meditating?"

"No. At least not yet." Sakura furrows her eyebrows. "It's only ever happened twice, actually. When I tried sensing chakra outside of myself."

"Good. If it ever happens when you are _not_ meditating, let me know and visit the hospital immediately, understand?"

Sakura nods. "So...is hypersensitivity a good thing?"

"On one hand, it is an unparalleled ability." Itachi frowns. "It theoretically allows you to see anyone you desire to find, whether or not they want to be found. No one can hide from you." His brows furrow. "But it is clearly a double-edged sword. Your heightened sensitivity seems to bring immense pain, at least for now, which is likely due to the sheer volume of information that batters your chakra every time you extend those receptors. Until you figure out a way to mitigate or adapt to the pain, it is unlikely that your ability will be very useful to you in practice."

Swallowing, Sakura nods again, the memory of that searing fire licking its way down to her fingertips. "Alright."

A warm hand moves to rest on hers. "I will look into it." And his eyes are so firm, so full of conviction, that she cannot help but trust him.

"Alright," she repeats, voice small. She cracks a faint smile.

He squeezes her hand gently, and lets go. "In the meantime, perhaps we can temporarily suppress your hypersensitivity so that you can sense your surroundings without the overexposure. You won't be able to see as much, but hopefully it will also hurt less."

"And the glow in the air?" Sakura wonders.

"Inert chakra, I believe. Even harder to sense than active chakra, which was what you saw in the trees and grass. There are normally only trace amounts in the air, remnants of active chakra leaked from the surrounding flora and fauna and people who cannot control their chakra strictly enough, which then becomes deactivated over time. It also accumulates in the air when a shinobi uses too much chakra to perform a ninjutsu-so the training grounds likely have more of it than you would see in the village."

"So I probably wouldn't see it anymore if we dull my hypersensitivity?"

"I would say almost definitely not."

"Okay."

Looking out over the field again, Sakura thinks again about the light, the life, the matter that exists all around her. Invisible to her eyes, but there all the same, floating inches from her face. She imagines losing that sight. To no longer feel the pain...in exchange for a landscape of stars where once a sun had blazed.

"We'll find a way," she decides. Because in spite of the agony, it had been beautiful. The world had been beautiful. "Thank you, Itachi-senpai."

"Aa." Itachi gives her another one of his half-smiles. Then he pins her with a serious look. "It would also be best if you kept this ability to yourself. I do not exaggerate when I say it is a priceless ability, and one that many would like to exploit if came to be known to exist. In ways you would not desire."

It is the way he says it, even more than the words themselves, that brings a shiver down Sakura's spine. Whatever he means, she is certain that she really, _really_ would not want to know.

Lapsing into a pensive silence, she fiddles with her fingers, mind lost in thought, the boy beside equally still. They both wait.

"Ano...is that why you came over today?" She pokes at the grass by her ankles.

"Partly." He flashes her a tiny smile. "I also just wanted to see how you were doing."

Another pause, this time more relaxed. Companionable.

"I saw you yesterday," Itachi unexpectedly shatters the quiet. "After class."

Sakura remembers. After class...with Sasuke. His unspoken question rings in her ear, waiting.

"You seemed busy," she manages. She begins to braid together a few strands of the grass she had been playing with.

"Not at all."

"With Sasuke, I mean." She starts another braid. "I don't know him that well."

"I would have introduced you," he patiently replies.

"I-" She stops. "I don't know, okay?" She finally mutters.

"Sakura-san."

His voice is so calm, and so understanding, that Sakura can't lie anymore. Because she knows. And she knows _he_ knows. That she had felt like an outsider. That she _didn't_ belong. That she did not want to, could not bring herself to observe their bond, to learn about it, to starve in the penumbra of its warmth.

And he is inviting her to tell him. To be part of it.

"I-," she opens her mouth, then closes it again in defeat. She can't. She fights back the warmth beginning to pool at the corners of her eyes. "I-."

"Sakura-san..."

"Who is Sasuke to you?"

And his face changes, softens, blooms in a way that has Sakura's breath catching, throat thick with an emotion she cannot name, breaking, breaking-

"My foolish otouto."

He smiles, and in that moment Sakura is so, so _jealous_ of Sasuke, this boy she doesn't even know-because what wouldn't she give, to be loved like that by someone, with the weight of their entire being. _'My foolish otouto,'_ he said, and a little part inside her starts to cry, because what she hears is _'my most precious person.'_

"And what does that mean?," she asks, because she has to know, has to hear him say it.

He closes his eyes. "It means," he murmurs, his voice so terribly gentle, "that whether he knows it or not...whether he _wants_ it or not...I will always be there for him."

"And," Sakura whispers back, equally gentle, "if you die?"

Because no longer does she believe in fairy tales. Promises are made to be broken, and 'forever' does not exist.

He is silent for a moment. "Then," the wind rustles softly through his bangs, "he will have Shisui." He casts his gaze towards her. "And he will have you."

Sakura blinks in shock. "I-I couldn't."

"You can." And his eyes are so certain, so confident. She has to look away.

"Itachi-senpai-"

"You think you have no one, but you are wrong. I choose my friends very carefully, Sakura-san." His eyes bore into hers. "I would trust you with my life. And I would trust you with his."

The words echo in her ears, ringing, ringing. _'I would trust you with my life,'_ he had said. _'I would trust you with his.'_

So Sakura opens her mouth and says the only thing she _can_ say to an admission like that: "Tell me about him."

Itachi emits a sigh that is almost a chuckle, eyes slipping closed again, and accedes. And his gentle lilt continues until the sun begins to dip towards the trees and the grass begins to melt into a dream.

"...He's silly. Always running around. And his favorite food, oddly enough, is the tomato. He calls me 'aniki' and is always asking me to train with him." He glances over at her finally, a wistful light entering his eyes. "I am rarely able to entertain his requests, unfortunately. I am seldom home."

Sakura bows her head. "You are a good teacher."

"Thank you," he sighs, "but a part of me, perhaps selfishly, does not want to introduce him to this reality just yet." An undeniably sad expression drifts across his features. "The life of a shinobi is...binding. The things he would like to learn now...he will learn anyway, in due time."

"Then," Sakura finally decides, throat dry, "I'll take care of him. If you ever need me to, I'll take care of him."

 _"Thank you."_

And then, he reaches out and lightly flicks her on the forehead.

 _"Itai,"_ Sakura mutters in surprise, flinching from the slight pain. "What-"

"I must go. I have a clan meeting," he sighs.

"Oh!" Sakura remembers, "Shisui mentioned you were at one last time as well. Is everything alright?"

Itachi is quiet. "Yes," he says, finally. "The clan is just addressing a misunderstanding, right now. It is a small matter."

A sensation of unease washes over Sakura, and she recalls a conversation at the Nara compound that had given her a similar feeling...a _'situation.'_

 _'Uchiha.'_

She stays silent.

Itachi stands up, and offers a hand down to her. "Are you heading home?"

"Yeah." Letting him pull her up, Sakura quickly dusts herself off and falls into step beside him.

"We can walk together, then. I am going in the same direction as your house."

"Aa. Thank you, Itachi-senpai."

"It is nothing." Dark eyes smile at her, warm once again. The pair fall into a relaxed silence.

"Ano," Sakura begins, one more question buzzing in her throat, "Itachi-senpai…"

"Yes?"

"So…" She kicks at a stray rock, _'Sasuke'_ bouncing around in her mind, "the reason you decided to train me…"

She trails off. 'Am I already living this reality?' She wonders. 'Am I already...bound?'

A gentle hand lands on her head, and she looks up at a fond smirk. "It is because you needed a special kind of teacher."

Sakura blinks. "What does that-"

"It's getting late." Itachi cuts her off, smirk widening. He cast quick glance at the sleepy sun. "Would you like a ride?"

"A...ride?" Sakura echoes, now completely befuddled. How is that going to speed things up? "Umm…"

"Here, get on my back."

She does, arms loosely circling his neck as he grips her firmly and straightens. For a second he is completely still, and so Sakura is too, the wind rippling through their hair. Starting to feel a bit ridiculous, Sakura opens her mouth hesitantly.

"Itachi-senpai…?"

And then he chuckles, the sound tingling all the way down to her toes.

"Hold on tight, Sakura-san."

* * *

Until next time, Reader-san! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :)

Responses to reviewer comments/questions:

xXWinterRoseXx: Hello! A question about your pairing comment: I actually have not denoted any pairings or non-pairings yet for this story. Are the main character tags supposed to be used for pairings? Sorry, I am new to this so I hope I haven't been doing everything wrong! Thank you and I'm glad you enjoy it so far! :)

Sunny ver 2.0: Your wish was my command. ;P


	9. Chapter 9

Umm hi, it's me again! Still alive, yes. Haha. Sorry for the long wait, the past few months have been a difficult time for me. But I have hope for 2019! If all goes well I'll be back in...less than half a year this time! Not to worry :D

Thank you so much to everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed/read this story-you guys really brightened up my life these past months. I am not kidding when I say that every new comment or notification I got literally made my day!

Speaking of which, also feel free to PM me whenever. I will try my best to respond, and that way you hopefully won't have to wait until my next update for a reply. And I love company: writing can be a lonely business at times! (If you happen to be knowledgeable on Naruto characters and canon plot line, though, be forewarned that I might turn into an information leech-I confess, I never finished the original manga! Whoops.)

 _Chapter 8 summary: Sakura learns a thing or two about genjutsu from Itachi-senpai._

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

The stone is cold and smooth beneath her fingers, perfectly polished and gleaming in the early morning light. Sakura kneels atop the carefully dusted platform and softly traces her way down the list of names.

 _Haruno Mebuki._

She mouths the name, memorizes the feeling of those characters carved in stone.

'Kaa-san. I'm sorry for not visiting sooner.' Her lower lip trembles, and she firmly wills herself not to cry. Not anymore.

Even knowing the facts, it had been hard to come here, to face the truth long etched upon the Memorial Stone. But now, months later, Sakura has also realized that there really is no running away, not even in her mind. Some wounds cannot heal on their own beneath a hasty covering of bandages and dirty wrappings. They need to be faced. She still hasn't been able to muster up the strength to visit her father, but maybe someday. One step at a time.

"Kaa-san," she whispers, this time aloud, and levels a bright, watery smile at the memorial. "I hope wherever you are, it is warm and sunny, Kaa-san. I hope it is always spring." Her mother had always disliked winters, even though winter in Konoha rarely meant more than chilling rain, a few flakes here and there. Kaa-san probably would have hated Snow Country.

Setting a carefully arranged bouquet of white lilies beneath her mother's name, she gently caresses a petal. It shivers beneath her fingertips, frail and sad. Mai-san had even wrapped a green ribbon around the posy.

"I brought you lilies, Kaa-san," Sakura begins again, voice low and soft. "I would have gotten other flowers too, but-" Sakura lets out a wobbly laugh, "my funds are slightly low at the moment. I hope you like these anyway. And I hope you're finally growing that garden you always said you wanted." One tear runs down her cheek, and she carefully brushes it away. It is getting harder to breathe. She presses her fingers more firmly against the polished memorial, starts to talk faster in an effort to get everything _out_ , expel it all before it is too late. "I'm doing fine. It was a bit difficult at first, but things have mostly settled down now. I keep the house exactly the way-the way you like it, I-" Sakura takes a long, trembling gulp of air, "I train hard, every day, and study. I've...even made some friends. So don't worry about me, Kaa-san. I can take care of myself. I'll be okay. I-" She chokes back a small sniffle, and slowly lowers her forehead to touch cold stone.

"I miss you."

Ever since her dinner at the Nara's-she hasn't been able to stop _thinking_. And then Itachi…

She is lonely.

"I miss you, Kaa-san." Her voice cracks at the end of that whispered statement and tears slowly begin to slide down her face, thick, heavy beads that steadily roll over her her soft cheeks and linger beneath her chin before finally dripping, _plop_ , down to the ground below. Sakura dips her head slightly and allows her hair to slide forward, over her shoulders, curtaining her face from the world, and finally feels the pressure in her chest begin to ease.

She doesn't know know long she stays there, knees digging into the platform, forehead to the stone. The early-autumn sun warms her back, while a cool breeze tickles her grown-out bangs. Salt tracks begin to dry beneath her puffy eyes, her breath slowly evens out. At some point, she falls asleep.

"Yo. Aren't kids like you supposed to be in school around now?"

Sakura's eyes snap open with a start and her shoulders jerk in surprise, accidentally causing her forehead to bang painfully against the inscribed stone wall as her body tries to rise from the ground too quickly. Letting out a gasp of pain, she quickly brings her palms up to rub away the soreness, taking the opportunity to also wipe away any vestiges of salt still on her cheeks before finally looking up.

The man is odd. Very odd and very striking. For a moment, Sakura just stares at him in bewilderment and slight awe, his question draining out of her mind. From the spiky, silvery hair, to the forehead protector pulled low over one eye, to the dark gray mask that covers the rest of his face-the man can only be described as 'strange.' But the intensity in his coal-black eyes which completely contrasts from the laid-back tenor of his voice and the casual set of his shoulders, the _warm_ coolness of his gaze that she finds she cannot even begin to read….

"Hi." Sakura smiles slightly, uncertainty bleeding into her expression as she recalls that the man had asked her a question-but for the life of her, she can't remember what it is. She hopes her puffy eyes are not too obvious. "Um, I'm sorry, how can I help you again?" He doesn't seem that old actually, now that she looks a second time. Older than Itachi, but definitely still in his teens. Probably around Shisui's age. His hair and vest make him seem taller, and his shoulders wider, than they really are upon closer inspection.

What little Sakura can see of the shinobi's expression from her position on the ground remains completely neutral, but she gets the distinct impression that he's becoming impatient. "Shouldn't you be in class?" he asks again. His voice is low and smooth, wrapped in a calculated indifference.

"Oh!" Sakura blushes and fiddles with the frayed ends of her long-sleeved kimono shirt. The position of the sun has already shifted to early afternoon: she's been here for hours. "I don't have class today."

She keeps her eyes fixed on her hands, not daring to look up just yet. Guilt begins to creep up her neck, even though it really has no reason to. And curiosity. She has never met a shinobi like this boy before, so emotionless and yet….

"So you're going to waste your entire day here, then?"

….and _yet_ ….

"It's not a waste!" She blurts out in shock and indignation before her mind catches up to her mouth and shuts it hastily. An unnameable flicker of something flashes through his eyes, and suddenly Sakura feels sad: cuttingly, achingly, sad.

"Yes," she mumbles, gaze falling back onto the memorial. "I will probably stay here for a bit."

The shinobi says nothing, just shifts slightly and blinks. And Sakura is struck with a horrible thought. What if he had been _waiting_ for her to leave? Has she missed some unspoken rule, that only one person can visit at a time? Are there multitudes of shinobi waiting, silent, in the trees, for their turn to mourn? While she lay against the stone and took a nap? Sakura scrambles to her feet, eyes wide.

"I can go if you want!" The top of her head only reaches the middle of his chest, and she stares, guilty, at the gray-green of his flak jacket. "I've been here for a long time already, I didn't know. I'm sorry-"

"No worries."

 _-And yet._

The boy's eye suddenly crinkles into a smile, leaving Sakura baffled. "I was just checking," he continues, as he straightens briefly from his previously slouched position. "Not too many people visit this place. Unless there's been a new addition." His eye opens again and lingers quietly over the names etched into the cold stone behind her. The air seems to still in the wake of his words, and for moment Sakura has to hold her breath against the weary heaviness that begins to slide silently into the clearing.

" _Maa_ ," the shinobi continues abruptly, cheery voice cutting through the thickening atmosphere. He breaks into another closed-eyed smile. "It's not as if any of them keep coming for long."

Somehow, the way he says it gives Sakura the distinct impression that she is being marked as one of 'them,' one of those people who will stop visiting in a few weeks, who will move on. The thought makes her irrationally angry.

"I won't!" she says, a bit too loudly. The older boy turns his gaze back to her. "I'm going to come every week. I won't stop." Her nails bite into her palms. "I won't forget."

Gray stares impassively back into green as he simply considers her, wordlessly, for one long moment. Then, he smiles. Not his closed-eyed smile-no, his expression doesn't change-but Sakura _feels_ it, is _so sure_ , that slightest shift in the air, that minuscule lightening of his irises, that near-imperceptible twitch of his lips behind concealing fabric.

Maybe she imagines it.

But the vision is still miraculous enough to suck all the air from her lungs.

"Well, that's nice to hear. Perhaps I'll be seeing more of you, then." He crinkles his eye at her again, and steps up beside her in a well-practiced motion, as if it is an action he's done a million times before. "Would you mind if I joined you for a bit?"

He looks down at her, a casual figure against the backdrop of trees and grass, a familiar guardian before this stone of memories.

"No," she says. "Of course not."

And so they stand.

* * *

It isn't until later that Sakura realizes she never asked for his name. The strange shinobi had left abruptly around sunset with little more than another eye-smile and a comment about having to get back to work.

'You should go home too,' he had said. 'Kids like you shouldn't be out tonight.'

And then he had vanished into thin air, leaving Sakura bewildered and slightly worried.

'Kids like me?' she wonders as she heads towards the marketplace, stomach grumbling angrily. She'd forgotten to eat lunch. Recalling her near-empty food stock, Sakura picks up her pace in order to get there before the last stalls close. _Kids like you shouldn't be out tonight._ She'll do her shopping as quickly as possible, she decides, and then go straight home.

Dusk has truly fallen by the time Sakura's sandals finally skid into view of the marketplace. Buying lilies has taken up a significant portion of her budget, she realizes as she glances around at the handful of stalls that have yet to close. She has funds set aside for food, but that bag of money is currently sitting in her kitchen cabinet. Letting out a resigned chuckle, Sakura quickly buys a couple of tomatoes and potatoes and other greens, some rice and noodles for the next few days, a modest bundle of scallions, a small box of eggs. Enough for some ramen, at least. She'll have to forgo the meat.

Pocketing her last few coins of change with a rueful shrug, Sakura hugs the heavy bag of produce against her chest as she slowly begins to make her way home through the shadowy streets meandering through the west side of the village. She walks as quietly as possible on the center of the path, eyes peeled for any sign of movement. Raucous laughter spills into the air as the night deepens, the distant clinking of porcelain growing louder as roadside pubs begin to smolder with smoky light. Sakura tightens her arms around her purchases. The fastest route home cuts through the slums of Konoha: not too safe, but mostly civilian. She is reasonably certain that she can outrun a few drunk men if anything happens.

" _Found_ you, ya lil' shit!"

Sakura whips around, hair flaring out around her as the sound of shattering glass reaches her ears. A middle-aged man looms ominously in an alleyway off to her right, tall and hunched over, a broken bottle in hand. His back to her.

"Di'you _real_ think you cou' hide fromme?" he slurs with a nasty cackle into the chilly air.

He isn't talking to her, Sakura realizes, but a small huddled figure hidden from view by the man's broad shoulders. With a crash, seven or so other civilians stumble out of a nearby bar, some still holding drinks, and join the male who just spoke.

"Oh, it's the demon _spawn_ ," mutters one of the new additions.

"Fuckin' filthy rat," spits out another.

A young voice cuts through the haze of insults. "Shut up, you stinkin' old bum! I'm NOT a rat!" The resounding smack that follows the statement makes Sakura gasp, craning her head in an attempt to see past the group of adults obscuring her view as the sounds of a scuffle commence.

Moments later, someone gives a yelp of pain and then a small flash of yellow breaks through the crowd, arms flailing as the boy pushes his way through the sea of legs.

"You fuckin' _bastard_!" one of the men roars behind him, stumbling out of the alleyway after the boy. He takes one wide, wobbly step forward, two, three, raises his beer bottle up, its jagged edges gleaming faintly in the black gloom-

"NO!" Sakura shouts. The bag of produce tumbles from her arms but she doesn't notice, doesn't care, bright blue eyes lock with hers, wide, warm chakra and sunny skies-

And then she is there. Arms thrown out, boy safely behind her, beer bottle frozen inches above her head.

"An' who th' fucker _you?_ " the man sneers, breath reeking of alcohol. He squints blearily down at her, face heavily lined with age and grief and hate. Behind him, the other men begin to close in, their shadowy silhouettes looming menacingly in the darkness.

Sakura swallows and backpedals a few steps away from the beer bottle, making sure to keep the boy behind her. Not knowing how to answer, she ducks her head slightly and says instead, "Please stop."

"So the lil' bastard's gotta friend, eh?" laughs a squat man with a badly receding hairline. Taking a swig of his drink, he wipes his mouth on the sleeve of his jacket and hiccups. "We gon' teach you a lesson too!" He thrusts his arm towards Sakura threateningly, making the clear liquid inside his bottle slosh around in frantic waves. "Don'tchu know better than t' mix wi' demon scum like tha'? Don'tchu parents teach ya anythin' worthwhile?" He takes another long draught of alcohol.

An urgent hand begins to tug at the back of Sakura's shirt, and she gratefully lets it guide her backward a few more steps. The street is deserted-no help, but no more enemies either. Perhaps that is a good thing. Sakura mentally debates the best time to make a run for it, and presses closer to the boy behind her.

"'Ey wait a mo'!" The group's leader suddenly leans down and glares at her with beady, bloodshot eyes. "I know you! Your tha' bastard's kid! The traitor's brat!"

"Holy _fuck_ yer right!" A thin, reedy man elbows his way to the front of the group. "My cousin went onna mission wi' the sonuvabitch once an' she's got the same ugly-ass hair!" He chortles darkly. "Two peas inna pod, eh? Well, today's yer lucky day, bitch! We gon' _take care_ o' the both of ya together!"

Sakura leaps back as the man makes a grab for her shirt, crashing hard into the blond-haired boy. A small hand grabs her wrist.

"C'mon, Sakura-chan! This way!" And then they are off, the sound of shattering glass echoing in their wake as they duck and dodge past the crowd, heavy footsteps hot on their heels. Sakura runs and has no idea where they are going or how close their assailants are, has no time to wonder how the boy knows her name, sees only the dirty white of the boy's T-shirt, the warm feeling of his hand in hers.

"Quick, Sakura-chan, in here!" he whispers, pulling her down a side alley. The rush through the darkness as the sounds of yelling grow louder behind them, trying to stay as quiet as possible. Sakura futilely scans the passageway as they run, looking for a place to hide. The men are drunk but fueled by anger, whereas the boy is quickly tiring, she can tell. Their only hope is to either outmaneuver their attackers or to conceal themselves.

Dead end.

"Shoot!" The boy whips around frantically, eyes sweeping left and right. The alley is empty save for a couple of empty barrels, an abandoned trash can, a dirty tarp.

No place to hide.

"Crap, crap, _crap_ -" Digging his fingers into the crevices between the bricks, he tries to climb the fifteen-foot wall to no avail. His eyes begin to fill with tears. "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan."

The voices are getting closer. Too late to run. Sakura considers the smooth gray of the wall carefully, mind whirring through plans and possibilities.

She cannot carry him.

' _Go!'_ A voice screams into her mind. ' _Leave him!'_

"Listen," she whispers urgently to the boy, grabbing his hands as she guides him to the cluster of barrels. "Just stay here, okay?" She pushes him down to crouch behind the makeshift hideaway. "Be quiet and don't move, not until I get back, alright?"

Confused shouting begins to echo down the alleyway. "'Eyyy I'm pretty sure I saw 'em come 'round 'ere!"

Muffled footsteps.

The boy clenches his fists.

"Hey." Sakura crouches down next to him, ignoring the paralysis creeping into her own gut. "Do you trust me?"

He trembles slightly, and nods.

' _Get out of here!'_ the voice in her mind shrieks.

Sakura gives his shoulder a quick squeeze. "Wait for me."

And then she takes a running leap and sprints up, up, up-and vaults over the wall, chakra surging through her legs to cushion her landing. No different from climbing a tree.

Exhilaration sweeps through her as she rushes out the other end of the alley and doubles around the block, adrenaline washing away her prior fear. The group of men are huddled at the entrance of the alleyway, huffing and puffing, sweat running down their necks and maniacal scowls etched upon their faces. Sakura scrutinizes them from behind an adjacent corner, making sure to keep her hair out of sight. She counts five men-a few must have dropped out during the chase.

"I swear I saw 'em go in 'ere!" slurs a heavily bearded man with a pea-sized wart on his chin. The hairs on the growth shiver violently as he suddenly doubles over and vomits all over his own shoes.

"Watch it," says the man next to him.

Sakura quickly glances down the street behind her. It is empty. Good. No one is a friend here. It seems as if everyone is in a bar tonight-the streetside pubs are now alight with screaming and conversation, all filled to capacity. For a moment, Sakura wonders if today is some sort of event; this volume of drinkers can't be normal.

 _Kids like you shouldn't be out tonight._

She shakes the thought away. As long as this strange night of revelry keeps drunkards from joining her attackers on the streets, well, then it's no business of hers. She has a boy to save.

"I think they're tryna hide," the group leader is saying. His collar is askew from the chase and he no longer has a broken bottle in hand-he must have dropped it. "Let's go check it out."

Sakura takes that as her cue. As the first men begin filing into the alleyway, she steps out from behind the street corner and deliberately kicks a stray rock across the street.

All eyes turn to her-but she doesn't stick around to witness their reactions. Running back around the corner, she rushes down the street while calling out in a frantic voice, "Hey, slow down, wait for me!"

"There they are!" she hears them shouting after her. "FOLLOW THEM!"

Pushing more chakra down to legs, she times her arrival at the next street corner right as the first of the men reach the last turn, angling her head to let her hair catch the light from a flickering street lamp nearby.

"THEY TURNED LEFT!"

Sakura darts away down the passage, repeating the same trick at the next corner, and the next, always making sure to turn as soon as she is spotted to ensure that the men won't see she is alone, praying that they are all too drunk to realize they are on a wild goose chase. Keeping her eyes peeled for side streets and roadmarks, Sakura runs until her mental map of the path she took tells her that they are now far away from the dead-end alleyway, then channels even more chakra to her legs and makes several quick turns to lose her assailants, doubling back around through a side passage she noticed earlier. Distantly, she hears shouts of "Where'd they go?!" and "Fuckin' shits!"-but they quickly fade away as she speeds back the way she came, faster and faster until the buildings are mere blurs zipping by on either side, thanking her extra training and hoping against hope that the boy is still there, that all of the men had followed her, that no one had entered that alley.

"Hey?" she calls tentatively when she finally arrives. It still and dark, seemingly abandoned, untouched. Sakura carefully makes her way back in. "Hey, are you still here?"

And then she is tackled.

"Sakura-chan, you're okay!" the boy cries into her hair. "You were gone for so long and I almost thought they got you and I really really wanted to come help but you told me to stay here and-"

"Hey. Hey, it's alright." Sakura awkwardly pats his back and steps away slightly, not used to the overt affection and not really sure how to respond to it. "I got back fine and I think they'll be gone for a while."

Now that the haze of fear has left her and she looks at the boy more closely, she realizes that she's definitely seen him before. A vague recollection of a rowdy troublemaker floats to the front of her mind.

"You're...from the Academy."

"Yeah! We're in the same class Sakura-chan! You sit in the back, right?"

Sakura fiddles with her fingers in embarrassment. "Yes, I do. I'm sorry, but I don't know that many people in class...ah..."

"Uzumaki Naruto!" The boy supplies enthusiastically, eyes glowing with excitement. "And one day I'm gonna be Hokage, dattebayo!"

Sakura blinks. "Er, okay."

Now he's the one who looks taken aback. "You're not gonna laugh?"

She doesn't really know what to think, to be honest. "Um, no?" she responds unsurely. When he beams at her and begins to open his mouth again, she quickly changes the topic. They have much more pressing matters to deal with at the moment. "Well, Naruto-san, do you live somewhere around here? We should probably get home before anything else happens. This place is not too safe."

"Oh, yeah, I do! Right by the place where you found me, actually!"

"There are houses there?" Sakura asks, feeling stupid. She lowers her volume to a whisper as they leave the alley and begin to head down the street, eyes and ears open for any sign of danger.

"The apartments near the Hokage Tower." He suddenly sounds subdued, and Sakura's eyes widen when she realizes why.

"You mean…"

"The ones for orphans, yeah," he says, not looking at her.

Impulsively, she reaches out and gently grazes his arm. "Me too," she admits, aloud for the first time.

He stares at her in shock, then suddenly wraps her in a tight hug.

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan."

"It's fine. Thank you." Sakura blinks back the sudden hotness behind her eyelids and glances around at their surroundings in an attempt to distract herself. "Are we almost there?"

"Yup!" Seeming to get the hint, Naruto grabs her hand and drags her down the street. "It's right around the block!" He levels a cheery smile at her. "See? That's the alley were you found me! And that's the bar those jerks were drinking in!"

"Wait. Wait!" Sakura calls as Naruto attempts to pull her around another corner.

"What's wrong?"

"My groceries!" Somehow, bag is still there, lying right where it fell earlier. She rifles through it, almost unable to believe her eyes when she finds everything she bought at the marketplace untouched-even the eggs are intact, miraculously cushioned by her other purchases. The silver lining to a stressful day.

"You can cook?" Naruto asks curiously, peeking into her bag.

"My mother taught me a bit," Sakura says softly as they round the corner and approach a tall, dilapidated apartment complex. "You don't?"

He scratches the back of head and shrugs, ducking his head. "Just some instant stuff, mostly. And snacks."

"Oh." Not knowing what to say yet again, Sakura settles for hefting her bag up higher against her chest as she quietly follows him up the rusted metal staircase to the third floor, then down an outdoor hallway until they reached a battered wooden door, old and weathered from the wind.

'I could have lived here,' is all Sakura can think as he unlocks the door and leads her inside. 'This could be me.'

The room is tiny and cramped, a rickety-looking bed shoved into one corner and a kitchenette in another. The walls are gray and peeling, the ceiling a map of cracked plaster. Trash litters the floor: plastic bags, empty soda cans, old clothes.

"It's a bit messy, sorry, but pretty comfy once you get used to it!" Naruto grins, and Sakura can only admire the spirit, the brilliance, of this boy who's suffering seems even worse than hers. Taking a seat on a cheap plastic chair set in front of a coffee table cluttered with papers and napkins and instant noodle cups, Sakura opens her mouth, then closes it again, a million questions flying through her mind.

'Why do they call you a 'demon spawn'?" she wants to ask, but she doesn't. After all, she would feel awful if he asked her about being a 'traitor's brat'. Ice blooms anew in her chest at the memory, and Sakura swallows a sudden lump in her throat.

Instead, she asks: "Does this happen to you a lot?"

It takes him a moment to understand. "Oh! It's….usually not that bad," he laughs, turning away and rummaging through an old wooden drawer hidden beneath the sagging blankets on his bed. "Snacks?" he offers. "I have senbei and uhhh, well, that's it."

He hands Sakura a cracker with a sheepish smile. "That's why I went out, actually! The old man said I have to stay in here tonight but I ran out of food and I figured, y'know, he probably wouldn't notice if I snuck out and nabbed something right? I mean, it's even my birthday and everything!" He beams proudly at her, eyes bright enough to light up the entire room. "I figured I'd get something nice, but then I got caught." Deflating a bit, he flashes her a guilty look. "I'm sorry to have gotten you mixed up in it, Sakura-chan. I swear I didn't-oh, are you leaving already?"

"Of course not," Sakura says, quick to reassure the lonely voice as she crosses the room in three quick strides and begins to comb through his kitchen cabinets. "I just thought I'd cook us some dinner while we talk."

"Wait, what?" Naruto scrambles to his feet as Sakura unloads the contents of her grocery bag onto the narrow counter. "No, you don't have to! That's-that's your food!"

"Don't worry, I bought enough for both of us." Finally unearthing a dusty pot from the very back of a shelf beneath the stove, Sakura dumps it in the sink and sets upon scrubbing it clean.

"B-but-"

Sakura cuts him off. "It's your birthday, Naruto-san, and you've been attacked, and chased across the village, and now you're stuck eating _senbei_ for dinner. I cannot change the first two things, but I want to at least make sure that you get to eat a hot meal tonight, okay?"

Naruto grows very quiet.

"Okay," he finally says. "Thank you, Sakura-chan."

She can't help but give him a small smile. "Happy Birthday. I'm just sorry I can't do more. Now-" she begins to rinse out the vegetables, "you clean up the room while I do the cooking, alright?"

"But Sakura-chaaann-"

"No 'buts'!" Wiping down the counter, Sakura begins to chop up the tomatoes with a small knife she found behind the faucet. "You're not getting any dinner until all these food wrappers are gone!"

A heavy sigh sounds behind her back, and then quiet rustling as the boy begins to pick up his trash.

"Fiiiineee."

"Good."

"And also….today isn't a bad birthday at all, you know. I mean….I got to meet you!"

Sakura doesn't turn around, just fills the pot with water and sets it on the stove to boil.

"I'm glad."

He doesn't see the smile that blooms across her cheeks.

"So," she says. "How do you feel about ramen?"

* * *

Until next time, Reader-san. I hope this chapter had enough action! I was actually writing another chapter when my brain decided it wanted this to happen instead. Not sure I like it, but it is what it is, I guess! Hopefully, it was still enjoyable.

 _Responses to reviewer comments/questions:_

The Cat's Paw: Thank you! Some readers have been very interested about the massacre, yes. It seems to be one of the bigger questions about this story so far...;P

Uchiha Misaki: Thank you for the confirmation! I am glad you liked this story so far :)

MidKnight Karina: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the story, as well as the chakra sensing idea! :) Hopefully this chapter did not let you down, haha.

AnimeEverywhere: Awww it's great to hear that you enjoy the story and chakra theory so far (and the strawberries!). I hope this chapter didn't disappoint!

Carina Llex: Thank you for the clarification! And I am super happy that you found Sakura realistic and liked the story so much :)

jujubean22: I completely agree about Sakura's potential! It makes me so glad to hear that you found Sakura's strengths balanced and enjoyable! :)

Jazzmeene: Haha thank you! Yay for chakra theory, and double yay that you like the slowness of the buildup! I think this story is going to be very long and quite slow at the beginning, so I am glad you're okay with that!


End file.
